Leeds United task complicated by West Ham United's eurovision as Sam Allardyce tries to muddy waters too

It is not just the ability of the teams you play at this time of the season but the sharpness of their desire which can be important and human nature dictates the Hammers might be dulled when they host the Whites this weekend.

With the Londoners' save from Premier League relegation in all but the maths, Thursday's 1-0 win in the Netherlands secured a place in this season's Europa Conference League final, where the prize for the winners is a place in next season’s Europa League.

Moyes could opt to rest players wholesale, as he did for the last Premier League game, at Brentford, to protect them from injury. They might have been mathematically safe had he not, instead losing 2-0.

But in a perverse way, playing his strongest XI could actually weaken the team if players are half-hearted about going in for tackles, worried about missing out on June's game in the Czech Republic.

A details man like Allardyce is just worried about the effect it will have on his pre-match preparation and could lead to a few last-minute rethinks in the hour before the 1.30pm kick-off.

“We probably can normally guess the team that’s going to be picked on the Sunday when we play them but it’s very difficult to pick this one because looking at Brentford last week, he made nine changes," Allardyce pointed out.

"Our preparation is to try as best we can to predict the team and how West Ham play and do a little bit of practice against that both offensively and defensively but we won’t really know what team he (Moyes) is going to pick until we get the email on our laptops, on our phones, to find out what team he has actually picked.

"Then we might need to have a little chat with the players before they go out. But I think even though he might change the team, they will basically probably play the same way as he normally does."

Allardyce certainly thinks the Hammers' midweek win was the best result for Leeds's survival chances on a weekend where if other results go against them on Saturday, they could kick off needing victory to avoid relegation after two seasons in the top flight.

"They’ve got a final to think about haven’t they?" he argues. "Subconsciously, you’ll never know whether that may affect the players in terms of when they go out and play. They’ll go out and play and try their best, subconsciously they won’t want to get injured so they might be a little more tentative. Who knows?

"But my job is about my team playing to the best they possibly can play."

As for anyone who does play both games this week, "it doesn’t happen until the last 20 minutes before fatigue kicks in so stay in the game as long as we can. Try and get in front in the game as quick as you can. And if we get that first clean sheet (of his tenure), I think we have a great opportunity of winning.”

Allardyce did his best to muddy the waters for Moyes, by revealing he is considering a change of system to cope with Junior Firpo's suspension.

So far Leeds have played a 4-3-3 formation in Allardyce's first two games but with the defender picking up two yellow cards in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle United, the Whites are without a specialist left-back.

"We've been talking about who do we fit into that position or do we perhaps change the system?" said Allardyce, who has centre-back Liam Cooper fit for the first time but is with Marc Roca because of a patella tendon injury.

"We've got to look at what West Ham did on Thursday and last week at Brentford and then we've got to look at what players we've got and pick a system to suit what's available."

If Everton win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon and Nottingham Forest avoid defeat at home to Arsenal in the evening, only a win on Sunday will keep Leeds in the Premier League.

But if Everton do not win, a Leeds victory could take them out of the relegation zone ahead of the final weekend.

Yet as important a game as Sunday is, Allardyce could not help but be torn away from his televisual scouting by events in South Yorkshire when the Hammers played on Thursday.

"I had to flick between that and Sheffield Wednesday and Peterborough because my son rang me up and said there’s this most bizarre game going on over the other side," he reveals. "I had to flick between the two because I had West Ham recorded anyway so I could go back to that but I was enthralled by what was happening at Sheffield Wednesday.”

If the Owls’ comeback from 4-0 down in the first leg to win their League One play-off semi-final on penalties was hard on the heart, Sunday promises to be no easier.