David Moyes reveals his Leeds United thoughts and chances of multiple West Ham changes v Whites

Boss David Moyes has declared West Ham’s intent for Sunday’s Premier League visit of Leeds United and his stance on once again making multiple changes to his Irons side.
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Fifteenth-placed West Ham are not yet technically speaking safe from relegation but only a freak set of results would relegate the Hammers who are now through to the Europa Conference League final.

The Irons booked a June final date against Fiorentina with a 1-0 victory in Thursday night’s semi-final second leg in the Netherlands against AZ Alkmaar which sealed a 3-1 win on aggregate for Moyes’ side.

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Ahead of the contest, Moyes made nine changes to his side for last weekend’s league clash at Brentford who served up 24 shots on goal and ten on target as part of a 2-0 victory for Thomas Frank’s team.

PLAN: For West Ham, above, revealed by boss David Moyes, the team pictured celebrating Thursday night's passage into the UEFA Europa Conference League final following victory against AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands. Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images.PLAN: For West Ham, above, revealed by boss David Moyes, the team pictured celebrating Thursday night's passage into the UEFA Europa Conference League final following victory against AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands. Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images.
PLAN: For West Ham, above, revealed by boss David Moyes, the team pictured celebrating Thursday night's passage into the UEFA Europa Conference League final following victory against AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands. Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images.

Sunday’s visit of Leeds will now present itself less than three full days after Thursday night’s cup game but Moyes has declared his side’s aim to finish as high as they possibly can, despite the possibility of more changes being made against the relegation-threatened Whites.

"I think it's an incredibly tough fixture but we still feel as if we would like to get more points," said Moyes, asked how tough the visit of Leeds would be for his side. "We can still climb the table if we win games so that's what I'm looking at and we have to get ourselves ready again.

"It's the hard part of Thursday-Sunday football. But it's a great part when you have just reached a final, the confidence, the belief, the atmosphere inside the stadium will hopefully give us a real opportunity to maybe play without as much pressure as we have been under for a long time, maybe give the players that opportunity to show the levels they can reach so we look at it slightly different but understand exactly Leeds United are in a position where they need to try and win and will try anything to do so."

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Asked how wary he was of making a lot of changes against Leeds, Moyes declared: "I'm not wary about doing it at all. Managers quite often will be criticised for whatever they do so you have to do what you think is right.

"Last week we had played a semi final on the Thursday night and we had to play again on Sunday. Unfortunately we have had so many games and the Premier League continues to give us games thick and fast which is part of being in it.

"We have got to go Thursday Sunday again this week so we will have a decision to make on what players we choose but if I have to do it again and I think it is right then I will do so.

"As a manager you can field whatever side you feel is right. We had to make a few decisions against Brentford last week. We had played the first leg in the semi final (on the Thursday) and I had to make a few decisions and quite often the minute your decisions don't go right you get mentioned. What it was was to leave people out last week and get us ready for this to get to the final and we took that and we have got some decisions to make this week as well.”

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Moyes also revealed that his players had been given Friday off following their late night return to England from Holland. He added: "The players returned late last night and we have chosen to keep them out today because we think it's better that they get some sleep and rest."