Eric Dier has said to Dele Alli to keep ignoring “irrelevant” opinions after Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer accused the Tottenham Hotspur attacker of another dive against Crystal Palace.
Dier, Alli’s closest friend at Spurs, said: “I’m sure they both dived in their careers. These things happen.
Obviously, because it’s Dele, I think 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 right 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 a sense of, ‘I need to get out of the way.’ If the opponent then goes and stops, it’s a difficult situation.
“One of the beautiful things about football is everyone has an opinion, but it doesn’t mean everyone’s opinion is right,” Dier said. “It’s difficult because nowadays with Twitter and Instagram and every other social media outlet, and the internet, everyone has an opinion and you have to sift through it to find the right one.
“That’s why every footballer, myself included, just needs to focus on the people that matter to us — the manager, our teammates and our family. I don’t think what anyone else says should really bother us.
“That’s the great thing about Dele. I don’t think he pays any attention to it and I think that’s the most important thing. All he needs to pay attention to is how his teammates feel and how the manager sees him and how his family see him. The rest really is irrelevant.”
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