New captain Daniel Bachmann is having to adapt to a totally different style of football, and as he does, there are going to be mistakes and moments of panic.

Almost playing as a central defender at times, and playing one-two's with midfielders, is not something many fans will have seen a Watford goalkeeper do – not just recently, but ever.

Yesterday there were a couple of errant passes that presented the ball to a Plymouth player 40 yards out, while one attempted Cruyff turn in his own box almost went disastrously wrong as he lost the ball before diving to smother.

It’s a way of playing that head coach Valerien Ismael insists upon, and while doing so he also accepts there will be a few more times like yesterday where everyone of a Watford leaning has their hearts in their mouths.

“It’s clear that when you play like that you expose your keeper, but this is what I want,” said the head coach.

“At some point they need to get used to playing like that, and then it will become more comfortable for them.”

Ismael revealed that Bachmann hadn’t trained in the week until Friday due to a knock sustained in last week’s win over QPR.

“It was a difficult week for Dan. He didn’t train for four days and he only joined back in yesterday for a full training session after a bang on his knee,” he said.

“That isn’t anything unusual for me. You often see that after a big pre-season.”

While fans will doubtless remember those uncomfortable moments, Bachmann also made a superb save in the second half to deny Plymouth when they looked set to score.

“Dan is an amazing keeper, a keeper that we know can make the difference. All the top teams have got keepers who win games or win points by stopping the ball,” said Ismael.

“Dan is a keeper with qualities that we know, and we now try to add something else to his game.

“I told him that playing the ball through the middle is not his first task, his first task is to stop the ball going in the net.

“This is what I expected from Dan. I say to my keeper that we have a philosophy with our goalkeeper, we talk with our goalkeeper coach and we work very closely together.”

The head coach said he wanted mistakes to be minimal, but at the same time he would take the hit for errors made while players are trying to do what he has asked of them.

“This is my expectation: as long as Dan tries to do the right thing, then I have to accept mistakes,” he said.

“If you make a mistake because of trying to do the right thing, then that is on me. So you can blame me.

“This is what I expect from my players. At some point it’s clear that you have to take better decisions, and sometimes we can discuss the decisions made.

“The words I say to the players is be brave with the ball. Don’t worry about making mistakes.

“If you try to do the right thing and you make a mistake, as I said that is on me.

“I try to take the pressure of the players. But they have to brave with the ball, otherwise it will be difficult. Long balls will lead to a fight and we cannot take control of the game.

“But this is what we want. So you will continue to see Dan like that, you’ll see Ben Hamer like that, because this is what we want.

“If we expected to play like we play so far, we need our keeper. For our game, we need our keeper.”