Marti Cifuentes told to use Leicester City player more who made ‘huge difference’ vs Oxford United

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Leicester City drew 2-2 with Oxford United over the weekend, despite Marti Cifuentes’ side playing most of the game with 10 men.

It hasn’t been the perfect start at Leicester City, having scraped through the Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday wins — and suffering disappointing dropped points to Preston North End and Oxford United.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough	5	4	1	0	9	3	6	13
2	Stoke CityStoke City	5	4	0	1	9	3	6	12
3	Bristol CityBristol City	5	3	2	0	12	4	8	11
4	LeicesterLeicester	5	3	1	1	8	5	3	10
5	West BromWest Brom	5	3	1	1	6	4	2	10
6	CoventryCoventry	5	2	3	0	15	7	8	9
7	SwanseaSwansea	5	2	2	1	6	4	2	8
8	PrestonPreston	5	2	2	1	6	5	1	8

Leicester fans are split on Aaron Ramsey’s red vs Oxford. Either way, it made securing victory much more difficult for 66 minutes of normal time against an Oxford side who remain winless.

It’s a post-Jamie Vardy world for Leicester now but they are showing that they don’t need him, given the quality of Ricardo Pereira’s equaliser late in the game. They then had to dig deep to protect their valuable away point.

• READ MORE: How Steve Cooper’s first Brondby game compared to his Leicester City opener

EFL expert George Elek praises Harry Winks

Gary Rowett praised Leicester’s Harry Winks for his display at The Kassam Stadium from the bench. That was something picked up on by the EFL experts over on the Not The Top 20 Podcast.

Ali Maxwell asked George Elek (an Oxford United fan): “Is this great result for Oxford against moneybags Leicester City or is this quite annoying because you were ahead twice and they had 10 men for most of the game? Two things can be true.

“Yes, yes. Yeah, frustrating. I think the most annoying thing from Oxford’s perspective was that we were probably the better team 11 v11; definitely the better team in this in the second half of the first half when it was 11 v10.”

Maxwell laughed: “The crucial second half of the first half.”

Elek responded: “And then, yeah, Cifuentes has brought on [Ricardo] Pereira and [Harry] Winks. Winks made a huge difference to Leicester. Now that he’s not leaving, I don’t really understand why he’s not just playing every minute of every game.

“He’s like one of the best players in the league quite obviously — and was two years ago for for [Enzo] Maresca in the team that won the league. I’m sure he will soon.

“Yeah, and we weren’t really at it second half and even after Pereira made it 2-2 with a nicely taken goal. That was a really cool goal to score with 10.

“We didn’t really make — you know, we had a lot of the ball, a lot of territory, never really looked troubled by Leicester, but couldn’t really create too much.

“But they’re a good team, so you know.”

• READ MORE: Leicester City find themselves in a win-win situation as Jordan James’ loan is confirmed

Winks has to start against Coventry City

Leicester have a phenomenal record against Coventry City at the King Power Stadium. That is a bonus, but Frank Lampard’s side can win midfield possession battles with Matt Grimes to call upon.

Winks and Grimes are two of the very best midfield metronomes in the division, but Winks has bossed this division before on the way to a title win for Leicester.

Despite being down to 10 and only being introduced at half-time, he had 47 touches and completed 37/41 passes (FotMob). He won five of seven ground duels as well.

He should be a cut above this division, and showcased as much during the 2-2 draw on Saturday.