Don’t call Alli a diver
DIER BACKS PAL DELE
ERIC DIER has backed Dele Alli over his latest diving controversy and told his Tottenham teammate to keep on ignoring the critics.
Alli has been booked twice this season for simulation, was accused by Rochdale of diving in their FA Cup fifth-round tie, and was at the centre of a cheat storm on Sunday.
The Tottenham forward went down in the area under a challenge from Crystal Palace defender Patrick van Aanholt at Selhurst Park.
The pair squared up to each other and had words again at the end of the match.
Palace fans were also fuming when Alli theatrically tumbled over keeper Wayne Hennessey a few minutes later, another penalty claim waved away by referee Kevin Friend.
Attention
Former England strikers Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer both attacked Alli on social media, accusing him of taking a dive.
But Dier stuck up for his England team-mate, saying: “I don’t think Dele dived. I’m sure they probably both dived in their careers.
“Because it’s Dele, it gets more attention than it deserves.
“It’s difficult sometimes. If you take the action in the game against Liverpool, where he got booked for diving, I was standing behind him.
“When he’s running towards the ball, he’s taken a touch and it looks like the guy is about to come and take him out. There’s a sense of, ‘I need to get out of the way’.
“If the opponent then stops, it’s difficult.”
Dier said Alli is ignoring the flak, adding: “That’s ® the great thing about Dele. I don’t think he pays any attention to it.
“All he needs to pay attention to is how his team-mates feel, how the manager sees him and how his family see him. The rest is irrelevant.
“One of the beautiful things about football is everyone has an opinion, but it doesn’t mean everyone’s opinion is right. With Twitter, Instagram and every other social media outlet, everyone has an opinion. You have to sift through it to find the right one.
“That’s why I say for every footballer, myself included, we just need to focus on the people that matter to us. What anyone else says should not really bother us.”
Match-winner Harry Kane also weighed in on Alli’s behalf.
“It’s hard when people watch football and they don’t really understand,” he said. “Sometimes players dive but sometimes you can’t get out of the way.
“I’ve said before, if someone makes a challenge, why should you jump out of the way? It’s their own fault.
“When you get a reputation, and it’s happened a couple of times, fans get on your back. But the referee is there to make a call and you’ve got to go with what he says. “Sometimes you do get a reputation but that’s when we’ve got to trust the refs. They can’t let that affect them. They’ve got to see what they see on the day and make a decision from that. “Fans might jeer or boo but it’s down to the ref to do his job.”