England midfielder Dele Alli insists he has no concerns about losing his cool at the World Cup.
The Tottenham playmaker has become a target as opposition players attempt to take advantage of his fiery streak.
But Alli, who claims he has never seen footage of David Beckham’s red card against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, expects his football to do the talking in Russia.
“I am a big believer that you have to make mistakes to learn from them,” the 22-year-old said.
“And, yeah, I feel I learned from the things I’ve done before, but it’s not something I worry about at all.
“I haven’t seen the incident with Beckham but, you know, I feel I’ve got everything under control.
“That (opponents winding him up in Russia) is not going to be a problem.
“Obviously, I’ve done some things before and people seem to think that will be a problem – but it’s not.”
Meanwhile, former England defender Rio Ferdinand has backed Raheem Sterling to shrug off the criticism aimed at him.
A gun tattoo on Sterling’s right leg became the subject of national debate over the past week and the Manchester City forward has struggled to replicate his club form at international level.
But Ferdinand believes Sterling is peaking at the right time and could be a key player for England at the World Cup.
“There is always going to be one scapegoat and people then pick out that scapegoat and abuse him,” he said.
“What I love about Raheem is that he has thick skin. He’s a hard worker. He’s someone who wants to do well and he’s a learner. And I think we’ve seen that this year. He’s been educated by Pep Guardiola, he’s taken it all on board and we’re seeing the player that we all believed he could be.
“He had more talent and more ability and he’s being pushed and coached in the right way and he’s flourishing.
“Becks had it once, Phil Neville had it. Things happen in a tournament and it just triggers people into saying, ‘He’s the guy’.
“Raheem’s stats and his game this year speak for themselves. But can he transfer that into an England shirt? And we’ve had problems down the years, different players not doing that. John Barnes was a player who couldn’t do that, who got stick. Chris Waddle got stick for stuff like that.
“So we’ve seen that happen down the years. I think in my era Michael Owen and Becks are probably the only players who did as well if not better in an England shirt than they did in their club team.”
PA
