Albion have been urged to help Kazenga LuaLua come of age as a match-winner in the Championship.

The former Newcastle winger has produced two lively performances off the bench since converting his loan stint into a three-year deal at The Amex recently.

He will hope to get a chance to shine at Middlesbrough – on his 21st birthday – on Saturday.

If LuaLua plays it will be his first return to the North East with the Seagulls since suffering a broken leg at Hartlepool 13 months ago.

Albion assistant boss Mauricio Taricco played behind LuaLua on the left side against Nottingham Forest last Saturday and said: “Kazenga has amazing pace.

“I’m a full-back and I don’t want to play against Kazenga. That tells me everything.

“We need to be able, as a team, to handle the ball better to give him the chance to get it in the right position and have a great chance to beat the full-back.

“We don’t want to ask a lot of him by giving him a difficult ball to control in a place where the full-back is pressing him.

“As a team we need to be better to help him shine. It’s the same with Craig Noone and Will Buckley.

“They are proper wingers and we need to help them out but sometimes we ask a lot of them.”

LuaLua has never full recaptured the form which lit up League One before his injury at Hartlepool but Taricco insists time is on his side.

He added: “Kazenga is only young. It seems he has been playing for a long time but he hasn’t.

“He is learning. We are asking things sometimes of the players that they have never done.

“Movements, getting in difficult positions for the opposition to pick them up, things like that.

“They need to learn and process all the information. It will take a little bit of time.”