Different. This was very very different.
Not tinkering with things a bit different, but lets forget everything we've ever learnt or done and start completely from scratch different.
Given that Brendan only met the players on Wednesday it was a very brave move to implement such a scheme in an important league match just 78 hours later.
That's probably the context in which this afternoon should be seen.
Loads of things didn't work at all. Lots of things went wrong. But for a first attempt this was just about okay.
Possession is the main mantra. Keep possession of the ball no matter what.
Even if this means constantly passing it between Loach and the back four. Or even if it means back passing a promising looking free kick as new man Bridcutt did a couple of times.
But it also meant occasionally, very occasionally when there was an opening, quite breathtaking play between Smith, Williamson, Jenkins, Harley, Hoskins, McAnuff and Priskin.
One such move lead to our goal although Priskin was trying to shoot when he crossed the ball and Tommy Smith slid it home.
Unfortunately another mantra seemed to be sit on a lead. Now I understand if you're at Chelsea this probably works well. The other team are unlikely to get back into the game if you're world class and you'll probably get one or two more despite being in defensive mode.
When you are Watford, especially a Watford that has recently leaked goals, its very risky. So it proved. For the 40 minutes between the goals we passed it around with an awkwardness that Doncaster did surprisingly little to challenge.
Brendan then made the mistake that probably cost us 3 points. He took off the attacking Bridcutt who clearly has been bought in to show the rest of them how its supposed to be done and put on the one player who is going to struggle the most with the new way of doing things, Lloyd Doyley. Presumably this was done to ensure it remained 1-0.
Well it remained that way for less than 60 seconds after Lloyd had run on. Not that he cost us the goal. In a move almost identical to ours, Brooker (who else) scored, the only difference was that the cross he met was a genuine cross rather than a misguided shot.
Having gone all defensive unfortunately we appeared to have no plan B. None at all. We continued to pass the ball around but the players looked like they were waiting for one another to suddenly ditch the new style and go back to Route 1 Boothroyd style.
The passing became sloppy and we kept giving the ball away, especially poor Lloyd, but he was by no means the only culprit. For a while Donnie were all over us and it looked nastily like we were facing another Blackpool situation.
The referee didn't help. He was a stickler for the rules sometimes restricting the follow of the play so much that you would've thought you were watching American Football. The man behind me suggested he was on commission for the amount of cards he dished out. The only surprise was that none of them were red.
At any point after Doncaster's goal Brendan could have and should have stepped in. He'd only made two substitutions and we needed to go back to an attacking formation. Even if it had meant Doyley only appearing for two minutes Liam Henderson was desperately required but, alas, never appeared.
Even in added on time the players still didn't look like they knew whether they were allowed to go for it or not. Loach particularly wasn't sure if he still had to pass it or could just boot it and so did neither whilst the crowd were urging him to get rid of it as the seconds ticked away. As we did look to launch one last attack the final whsitle blew and boos echoed around the stadium. This was rather harsh but I think its because we felt we shouldn't have been leaving the ground feeling relieved to have got a point.
I don't feel Spurs is really the next match Brendan needed. I fear if we play in a similar style, and I'm sure we will, we could be on the receiving end of 4 or 5.
