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Its hard to tell but he already looks like a better defender to my eyes. And a much better footballer. Likes to come inside and gives more passing options. Barisic is quite one dimensional in that either passes down the line or goes backwards. Ridvan is 22 and will improve. Barisic has peaked.

Reference Snow White, you must remember six out of seven of her devotees are NOT Happy.

He's got good pace, good link-up and good passing. He can always improve his crossing. He's ahead of Barisic, for me.

It’s fairly early days but I like Ridvan. A much better defender than Barisic, good at quick passing and getting involved in build-up play and far more capable of getting to the byline and cutting it back than Barisic. I like how he makes underlapping runs too. He’ll never be as good a crosser but I don’t think he’s as bad as made out at crossing either. Needs a proper spell without injury this season to prove himself but I’m optimistic.

We're winning the Champion's league.

Is it not a sell on fee depending on a profitable sale for Ajax? I may be wrong.

Harsh John. Ridvan has about a dozen starts under his belt so it's early. We need to give him a chance as we need to move on from Barasic.

Taking anything substantial from friendly matches is a fool's errand but until almost every player was replaced, it was a fairly competitive game. Newcastle where the better side but in the end we can consider ourselves unlucky to lose. Positives and negatives to consider! In the first half, I thought Dowell and Cantwell were busy and will link well against easier opposition. Lammers and Sima struggled to get into the game but there were glimpses of what they can do. I also thought Davies and Souttar defended quite well. Jack and Lundstram didn't seem to know where they were playing and we left far too much space in wide areas, despite neither Tav or Barisic being able to get forward. Second half is difficult to analyse given all the changes but Raskin immediately stood out when he came on and I again liked the intent of Ridvan but his crossing was poor. Yfeko had an decent cameo late on too whilst Balogun did largely fine but both were culpable at the winner. Hagi also showed up well in a deeper role whilst Lowry looked bright too and was unlucky not to equalise. All things considered, plenty food for thought for the manager. I'm not sure the main system worked all that well but Sima is unlikely to be the focal point going forward anyway. More time needed for other relationships to develop and I think adding Cifuentes will be useful.

It'll never catch on. 😉

No I don’t think so. Everything I’ve read about him is that he is far more comfortable as a 10 than an 8, and struggles with the defensive side of the game. Raskin needs to be the 6. Dowell will chip in with a good number of goals too. He will definitely be better than what we’ve had in midfield on that front, even if played as an 8.

Ah, sounds like a good book, 'The Joy of Six'. Admiral Yamamoto Lawwell will be obliged to commit hari-kari.

If we can navigate the early Euro qualifier and get to the first OF game with 9pts on the board I'll be happy. How they actually do it is irrelevant at this stage.

A curate's egg of a game, I suppose: Newcastle good in parts, Rangers bad in parts. Newcastle had more good parts, and less bad parts, Rangers the opposite. At one point in the first half, it looked as though we were on a hiding. I would say that the trip to Germany does not seem to have sharpened up many of the players, and we looked a little lacking in pace, even Ridvan, Fashion, and Matondo coming second best in foot races, and as for Jack and Lundstram....... The defence looked as bad as last season. Raskin and Hagi did look the part, but, of course, we know they are quality. The lad Yfeko certainly stood out, with that hair, and that size, and that build, and, as a bonus, looked as though he has something about him, football-wise. The other yoof looked interested, lively, and a little quicker in thought and movement than the usual old suspects. I know it's early, that there were innumerable changes (thank God!), and that Newcastle are a high calibre team, with very expensive, and expensively remunerated, players, but it's always disappointing to see how far we can fall short. We could have squeezed a draw, which might have been on the home side of a fair result. Perhaps we should have arranged to play Newcastle last of the pre-season fixtures. (And £40M for Anthony Gordon looks a steal. For Everton.)

Hope

I only caught parts of the match last night, but Dowell seemed to put himself about quite a bit I thought, worked hard in defence, not just attacking. The main thing that stood out to me was that Hagi seemed like the best player on the pitch, whenever I caught up with the game it was Hagi with an intelligent cross or pass, creating something.

The sooner we get rid off the 55 first XI, the better. And I mean every single one of them.

Carragher was convinced Martinez wouldn't cut it at Man Utd because he was small. It's just a 'Da' response, for me.

Three points dropped. Unacceptable. #BealeOut

No, I believe it's important to Maasai warriors and Snow White too.

I thought Borna had a poor game last night. I am still not convinced of Ridvan either but he brings a lot more energy and at least tries to go forward, something Backwards Borna seems to have forgotten most of the time.

Great to be back at Ibrox last. Newcastle are a very good team and gave us a lesson in the first half when we sat too deep and didn't press. We clearly missed an out and out striker. The second half was better and the new players did okay but the shining lights for me were Hagi and Raskin. Great to see Hagi back playing like his best. Question, where was Roofe?

Later stages of Europe I admire your optimism

Jack and Lundstram struggled too.

Agreed. Raskin looked like an absolute boss and I was hugely impressed with Hagi, who I worried might be lost to us but seems to have put his injuries behind him. I also wondered about Wright and assumed his Turkish trip was off. Tamundo seems to have no progress.

Probably and it also would put an end to any add on clauses though i don't think we had much there.

I don't know guys, feels like a lot of wishful projecting going on with Ridvan. He's not Barasic seems to be the main thing he has going for him. Ridvan didn't look like a better defender last night, or, frankly, any other time I've seen him, and Borna sets a low bar on that score. He is young(ish) and perhaps a run of games will help him find some form and confidence, but the fact he can't dislodge Barasic as our first choice left back, despite his repeated lapses, tells it's own story. We'll see...

Based on a tribute match/friendly...all the new guys are pish and we haven't progressed at all...🤣🤣🤣

Watching the game, I was mildly disappointed that we seemed no better than we were last season. Maybe I got caught up in the promise of all the new signings but you are probably correct - it was a testimonial after all. Thankfully, we wont have to face a team of Newcastle's quality very often. How the team play when we have 70% possession against a packed defence will be interesting to see and make the comparison to last season a bit easier to judge.

It's not like Rangers fans to overreact and make rash early judgements based on a preseason testimonial kick about... 🙄

I think that was the intention with comparisons fairly obvious given his size and left-sided nature but he struggled for the B team last season. Maybe just took some time to settle as he certainly looked capable enough last night.

I like the look of big Yfeko. I'd like to see more of him this season. He could be another Bassey.

Time will tell.

Roofe Dessers and Lawrence will play some part on Saturday according to MB after game

What does everyone see in Ridvan? I'm at a loss why anyone thinks he's an improvement on Barasic. Borna can't defend but at least he can cross, Yilmaz can't even do that. There are rides at the shows he can't get on, my heart sinks when I think of what we paid for him. That aside not sure there's much to take from the match. Newcastle have better players than us, perhaps not unexpected when they spent £415 million assembling them, but the gulf wasn't cavernous although it felt like they had another gear if they wanted it. With the exception of the keeper our defence is unchanged, that might be a worry. Lundstram looks like he's starting this season like last season. Hopefully someone will convince him it's actually March and he'll find some form. A bit early to judge the new guys but as I'm a Rangers fan I won't let that stop me forming hard opinions and fighting to the death for them. Butland is too handsome for a goalie, get him punted, I've taken an instant dislike to him and that's unlikely to change. A midfield of Dowell, Raskin and Rice should carry us to glory. The big Dutchman looks like a handful and Sima is certainly strong, hopefully he's got a bit more than that too. Big season ahead for Lowry, whether it's on loan at St Johnstone or in our first team he needs to start playing regular football or his career will be one of what might have been.

If Matondo, Sakala and Barisic don't show more against Hamburg I think they're going to spend a lot of time on the bench this season if they don't leave.

Not sure why we are getting so hung up on formations in here. The conventional wisdom these days is less about formations and more about attacking spaces - was it not Spaletti that coined this approach when he said that he isnt overly fussed on formations (aside from a base) and that the game had progressed and is more about being in the spaces before your opponent ? I am positive I saw an interview with a new signing (not sure if it was one of ours, or one of the big ones in the EPL) where they also said that the manager was more about spaces than formations. Formations are great, but they should never be rigid - obviously you arent going to play a 0-6-4 but you have a base formation around which everything can then become fluid. Asides, for the most part Beale has operated in similar fashion to Gerrard in that the front 5 or 6 are very fluid (which makes it difficult to defend) but whether thats a 3-3, a 2-3-1, a 3-1-2 it almost doesnt matter