International break respite will only ramp up pressure on Tim Walter, Steve Evans and co

November's international break is a worrying time for a manager under pressure.

We are not yet at its end but remarkably it seems as if a football-free fortnight for English clubs in the top two divisions (and more besides) will pass without a single victim. That only adds to the pressure on Saturday's game between Luton Town and Hull City.

Not that Hull coach Tim Walter will be the only Yorkshire boss needing to hit the ground running when the matches get going again.

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The pause for Nations League football means different things to different clubs. For some, recharging batteries is the priority ahead of the most arduous spell of the season as temperatures drop, pitches get heavier and the calendar condenses.

UNDER PRESSURE: Hull City coach Tim WalterUNDER PRESSURE: Hull City coach Tim Walter
UNDER PRESSURE: Hull City coach Tim Walter

For others it is a chance for hard graft on the training pitches, to iron out the problems presented in the opening months of the season.

For the majority of players in squads like Leeds United's, the only rest is mental, the work mostly national service. But as Italian Under-21 international Willy Gnonto pointed out at the start of the break, even that can be beneficial.

So too is not playing at Swansea City until Sunday, ensuring preparations are a little less rushed than when they came out of the last break, hosting (and beating) Sheffield United on a Friday.

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For all five Yorkshire sides resuming their Championship programme this weekend, and for League One Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United, the onus will be on to show it has been time well spent.

FAN FURY: Rotherham United manager Steve EvansFAN FURY: Rotherham United manager Steve Evans
FAN FURY: Rotherham United manager Steve Evans

No one needs a win more than Walter and Luton’s Rob Edwards.

As they headed home the Saturday before last, both could have been forgiven for worrying. Walter is not out of the woods yet – Hull sacked Shota Arveladze on the last day of September 2022’s break.

The last time their teams were in action, Hull's winless streak extended to seven games, Luton took a 5-1 pounding at Middlesbrough.

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Walter has had it tough, sold short by a transfer policy sponsored by lastminute.com. A coach promising a "unique" style needed training-ground hours more than most.

DERBY DEFEAT: Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny RohlDERBY DEFEAT: Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl
DERBY DEFEAT: Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl

Injuries have compounded matters, season-ending anterior cruciate ligament damage to wingers Liam Millar and Mohamed Belloumi days apart was Lady Luck kicking a man when he was down.

But.

The Championship season is 15 games old and we are yet to see much evidence Walterball can deliver results or the entertainment chairman Acun Ilicali promised.

Walter’s three wins were squeezed into 11 false-dawning days. Outside of them, Hull have never scored more than once. The 4-1 win over a then-desperate Cardiff City has been a solitary home victory. Hull have only kept one clean sheet, but have been shut out six times themselves.

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There is just no positive way of spinning it: it has not been good.

For coaches in need of a rethink, international breaks are a Godsend if they get them, not that Walter seems like the sort to consider a change of direction. His chairman is.

If he cannot deliver a result, Walter must at least inspire confidence he has hit on a way of playing that can work with his players in this unforgiving division.

If a fixture-free fortnight can help coaches they also give time to identify and recruit their replacements. Do it quickly, like Sheffield Wednesday in October 2024, and the new man even gets some time to ingrain his ideas on the training pitch.

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November's is the last such break until international football comes out of hibernation in March, the last before the January transfer window opens, late enough to have given the incumbent a decent run at showing what he can do.

But unlike transfers, there are no windows to make sackings in. Making it to Saturday will be scant consolation to Walter or Edwards if they lose at Kenilworth Road.

The angry response of Rotherham United fans at their last meaningful game – a League One derby at Barnsley – means the heat is starting to turn up on Steve Evans too, ahead of a trip to his old stomping ground, Crawley Town.

A home win would further threaten Yorkshire's pleasing record of still having the same set of league managers who started the season in situ.

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Wednesday’s Danny Rohl is in no such danger but adding a Steel City derby defeat – albeit a narrow one – to a bitty start to a campaign which started with such high hopes will wear away at the patience of supporters and more importantly their sometimes trigger-happy chairman Dejphon Chansiri.

A home game against a Cardiff side in the relegation zone having already seen off one manager is a "should win". Lose and the Owls will be below the Bluebirds in the table.

For Leeds, Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and Huddersfield it is about picking up where they left off – easier said than done after a rhythm-breaking pause.

But you would far rather be in their situation than that of Hull, Rotherham and Wednesday right now.

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