Barcelona face Real Madrid at the Bernabeu tomorrow (12pm) in a huge pre-Christmas El Clasico.
Barca are 11 points ahead of their bitter rivals, who sit fourth in La Liga despite winning the FIFA Club World Cup last week.
Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to overcome a calf problem to face Valverde’s men, who are unbeaten since losing 5-1 to Real in the Spanish Super Cup at the beginning of the season.
Barca are in great shape but boss Valverde has one dilemma going into the derby.
Spanish sports paper Marca say the 53-year-old has to choose between Thomas Vermaelen or Javier Mascherano as centre-back partner for Gerard Pique.
Vermaelen has filled in for the injured Samuel Umtiti in recent weeks after being told he was free to leave the Nou Camp by Valverde.
Mascherano would normally step in alongside Pique but he has only just recently returned from injury himself and is close to leaving the club.
The 33-year-old could scupper his move to Chinese Super League outfit Hebei China Fortune by featuring in El Clasico.
While Valverde may not want to risk angering Vermaelen by dropping him after he started five of Barcelona‘s last six games.
Vermaelen is likely to be more useful to Valverde than Mascherano for the rest of the season.
But whoever gets the nod is likely to be targeted by Real Madrid as a potential weakness for their strikers to capitalise on.