Gary Rowett thinks one Leicester City star showed he was a class above against Oxford United

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Gary Rowett was left frustrated after Oxford United were held to a 2-2 draw against Leicester City, but singled out one Foxes star as the game changer.

Oxford failed to take advantage of having an extra man after Aaron Ramsey was sent off less than half an hour into his Leicester debut.

Jordan Ayew and Ricardo Pereira cancelled out a Will Lankshear strike and Boubakary Soumare own goal.

While a share of the spoils may have been disappointing for both sides, there was one player that Rowett couldn’t help but admire.

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Gary Rowett singles out Harry Winks for Leicester impact

Marti Cifuentes was visibly angry with how the first half had gone and decided to make two changes at the break.

Pereira was one of those who came onto the pitch, along with midfielder Harry Winks, who for Rowett, was the star man at the Kassam Stadium.

“It’s always frustrating when you’ve gone 1-0 up and 2-1 up and they’ve had a man sent off, and you don’t come away with a win,” the Oxford boss said.

“They changed formation, tried to play through lots of bodies in the middle, and I think Harry Winks coming on for them and Matty Phillips going off for us made a massive difference to the game and we just lost our way a bit.

“They scored one very good goal, poor from our point of view, and that’s the frustration really because they haven’t had a lot of chances.”

Harry Winks’ stats for Leicester City vs Oxford United

He only had 45 minutes to make his mark on the game, but Winks stood up and took responsibility.

The midfielder was the driving force behind Leicester’s Championship title win in 2024 and looked at home in the middle of the park today.

As always, the number eight’s passing was almost perfect, and over 40 passes with just one half of football suggests he was central to everything good in the Foxes’ performances.

After losing his way under Ruud van Nistelrooy last time, Winks will hope this can be a fresh start.