Albion have a spy to stop the best young player in the world.

Naby Keita has taken the Premier League by storm in his first two matches for Liverpool.

The £53 million midfielder made an impressive debut at Anfield in their 4-0 destruction of West Ham.

Keita caught the eye again in Monday's 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, particularly with a turn away from a bemused opponent, followed by a 45-yard pass over the defence to release Mo Salah.

Bernardo, Albion's Brazilian summer signing, saw plenty of that kind of talent when they were team-mates at Red Bull Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.

Bernardo (below) told The Argus: "Keita for me is world class. I don't know if there is a better player than him at his age.

The Argus: "He is (19) 95, like me. I cannot think of one player in the world that is better than him.

"He is a fantastic player without the ball, with the ball. He helped us (Red Bull Leipzig) a lot.

"He was at least 20 per cent of our team. It was actually a good team that finished in second place in Germany."

It will be a pig of a task for Albion to keep track of Guinea international Keita, one of the many mobile threats to the Seagulls' hopes of a shock result after beating Manchester United.

Bernardo can help them cater for him - whether he is playing or not.

"For sure I can help with some information," Bernardo said. "He is a very good player but he is not a robot.

"He also has his weaknesses. I am a good spy! I can give some good information."

Liverpool chief Jurgen Klopp (below) said after the win at Palace that Keita is very shy, does not talk much and can improve tactically.

The Argus: Klopp's character assessment does not resonate with Bernardo, who admits it will feel strange being on the opposite side to his two-time ex-colleague.

"For sure it's going to be weird," Bernardo said. "Nabi is a fantastic guy, a really humble guy.

"He's an excellent professional. He was on my side (of the pitch), so we were always talking.

"His German was not the best. Mine was also not the best but we could communicate.

"We were trying something in Portugese-French and we had a good relationship.

"We also played often in Austria together at Salzburg for half a season, then moved together, so I know him very well.

"Here in England it's very tight. Teams defend very well and he is capable of breaking lines. He gets the ball in the defensive line and goes through the middle.

"He also has good quality, good passes, a good shot, and he is a very dangerous player because he makes the ball go from the defensive line to the attacking line in a few seconds.

"He is a player that would make the difference in any team in the world. If you put him in every single team he's a player that would add a lot of value. He is going to take Liverpool to a higher level."

Bernardo will have to settle for a watching brief to start with in Saturday's clash (5.30pm).

The £9 million buy from Leipzig was replaced by Gaetan Bong at left-back in the stunning victory over United.

That followed a difficult debut at Watford, where he had to switch to the right when Bruno was forced off by hamstring trouble in the first half.

It will be mainly down to a combination of stand-in skipper Dale Stephens, Davy Propper and Pascal Gross to halt the threat posed by Keita from the left side of midfield.

The Argus: Keita will be linking with Sadio Mane (above), scorer of Liverpool's second goal at Selhurst Park.

The job of marking Mane falls to Martin Montoya on his away debut.

The former Valencia and Barcelona full-back got off to an accomplished start against United. Manager Chris Hughton said: "He's an experienced player who has played at a good level in some very big games. I think that helped in his first Premier League game.

"It gives us very good competition in that position, the sort of competition Bruno accepts and knows it's got to be the best thing for the team."