Marcelino: Valencia expect the Barcelona that played against Tottenham LaLiga Santander Knows Sunday's rivals will be at their best

Valencia are out to make up for a slow start to the season but Marcelino believes that they could have their work cut out against league leaders Barcelona.

The coach faced the press before the fixture and revealed what he is expecting from the Catalan side.

"I don't know what they can improve, we must expect the best Barcelona, like they played against Tottenham, that's what we have in mind," Marcelino insisted.

"Before they didn't have such a collective level, they could have beaten Athletic Club, they played with ten against Girona and Leganes was their weakest.

"Barcelona will play at their very best against Valencia with the players their coach considers the best."

That presents an exciting prospect for Marcelino, who is keen to beat the LaLiga Santander leaders.

"I want to win, it's an important game, it would be an important step for the fans, but we know it's difficult," Marcelino said.

"We don't have a special interest in this game more than any other, we try to respect every rival and their idea is always to try to beat Valencia.

"We haven't won as many as we wanted and we want to win our first home game."

Valencia's start to the season has been a poor one, struggling to match the form that took the club to the top four in 2017/18.

"It's very difficult to value where we are at, but we have room to improve," Marcelino admitted.

"The team have been improving and keep improving, I haven't seen the team as bad, vulnerable, apathetic or slow, never, they have never looked like that.

"We are just lacking continuity with how we want to play in these games, I feel that we could have won in many of them, we are more compact and solid now and have players back and others who have found form."