What we already knew was confirmed earlier this month when our striker was named on the shortlist for this year’s Women’s Ballon d’Or award.
As we heard from her in 2021, Shaw had already defied the odds by reaching professional football.
Girls in Spanish Town, Jamaica did not play the game, never mind view it as a potential profession.
Despite seemingly little opportunity to her passion into her way of living, Shaw continued on regardless, proving doubters wrong at every turn.
Now she is scaling new heights.
Ahead of the start of the new Barclays Women’s Super League season and October’s Black History Month, we want to mark the incredible impact the Jamaican has had on our side.
The theme of this year’s Black History Month, a month-long recognition of the achievements of Black people across all areas of society, is ‘Celebrating Our Sisters’.
This means acknowledging those Black women who have shone in their field. Since Bunny’s move to the Joie Stadium in 2021, she’s done exactly that for Gareth Taylor’s side.
We’ll have plenty coming throughout October to mark the incredible influence of the Black community at Manchester City but for now, let’s focus on the numbers behind our striker’s two seasons in Manchester.
Goals
Bunny’s 29 goals in 39 games is the second most in the Barclays Women’s Super League since the start of the 2021/22 season. She only trails Chelsea’s Sam Kerr, who has scored 32 times in 41 matches.
Last season’s haul of 20 goals from 22 games was a City record in a single WSL campaign, beating Nikita Parris’ 19 strikes in 19 games in 2018/19.
As the below graphic demonstrates, she’s far outperforming what xG would have expected of her.
Of her 164 shots in the WSL, she has accumulated a total xG of 23.0 – which suggests the average striker would have scored 23 times.
Scoring six goals more than Opta’s metric would estimate highlights Shaw’s composure when it comes to converting chances.
The graphic also shows exactly where Shaw’s goals have come from, with only one strike – the drilled effort against Spurs last season – originating outside of the box.
Minutes per goal and assist
We know Bunny is prolific, but the rate at which her goals come is simply phenomenal.
Of all players to have scored at least 15 goals in WSL history, she has the second best minutes per goal rate. Again, it’s Sam Kerr who leads the way.
Shaw’s goals every 93 minutes is only two minutes worse than Kerr’s strike every 91 minutes.
However, when assists are included Shaw is in a class of her own.
29 goals and 10 assists means the striker has a goal involvement every 69.2 minutes, fractionally ahead of Kerr.
While not immediately as impressive as her 2022/23 season, her nine goals in 17 games saw her score at an incredibly quick rate of a goal every 88 minutes.
Aerial threat
Bunny is the complete striker.
She is the only player to have scored at least five goals with each of her left foot, right foot and head in the last two WSL seasons.
Despite having played in the league for two years, she is already the fifth most prolific player in the league’s history with her head.
Her 10 headed finishes in just 2700 minutes means she is only behind Nikita Parris, Rachel Williams, Sam Kerr and Bethany England – all of whom have played many, many more WSL games than her.
Bunny has competed for a total of 119 headers in her WSL, winning 72 of them at a success rate of 60.5%.
As the below graphic shows, those have come all over the pitch including, decisively, in her own box.
Defensive actions
Playing for City requires outstanding technical ability with the ball at your feet, but it also needs a selflessness in order to defend as a team out of possession.
The below graphic shows all of the areas of the pitch in which Bunny has completed one of her 95 defensive actions across her 39 WSL appearances.
A defensive action includes any tackles, blocks, clearances or interceptions.
The graphic demonstrates that Bunny is active defensively all over the pitch, including running into the channels and dropping back into our own box for set pieces.
Touches
A quarter of all of Bunny’s touches in the WSL have been in the opposition box.
16% of her total touches come between the posts, more than any other area on the pitch. Perhaps more than any other statistic, that shows her clearly defined role in the team.
With so much creative talent behind her, the striker is on the pitch in order to convert the chances that the likes of Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly and Deyna Castellanos create.
Other than the equally dangerous region just behind that, where 11% of Bunny’s touches have come, the spread across the rest of the pitch is fairly evenly distributed.
So, while Bunny is clearly asked to remain between the posts while City are high up the pitch but also fulfils a vital function through her hold up play to progress the team forward.
