Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw is the best women’s striker in world football

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The notable thing about Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur is how simple the Manchester City striker makes all three goals look. A volley in the six-yard box from a failed clearance following Alex Greenwood’s corner. A back-post header from another Greenwood corner, Shaw rising above those of Spurs’ smaller defenders. Another towering six-yard box header, this time from Kerolin Nicoli’s lifted cross. 

They are the class of goals upon which the City striker’s legend resides, the bread and butter of her lore, which, after City’s 5-2 Women’ Super League win against Spurs, now includes the fastest hat-trick in WSL history at 12 minutes and 37 seconds (usurping Arsenal legend Kelly Smith’s 16-minute effort), but also the earliest (arriving inside 21 minutes). 

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Yet it’s a unique phenomenon that a series of goals can be so undeniably textbook and simultaneously threaten to undersell the player entirely. 

Because what the words “header”, “close-range volley” and even “fourth successive hat-trick against Spurs at home in the WSL” fail to confer is everything that Shaw does to transform a feat of striking excellence (a hat-trick) into a kind of footballing MOT. 

There’s the dexterity to manoeuvre her body in a crowded space for the first, the instinctive understanding of precisely where the goal is in relation to her own centre of gravity. 

There’s the sheer strength for the second and third, not only to push her nearest defenders into compromised positions with just one arm but to simultaneously summon the force to propel the ball forwards as she herself is falling backwards.  

There’s the intelligence of her positioning for all three, but particularly the third, with Shaw putting space between herself and Kerolin at the top of Spurs’ 18-yard box to seem totally unsuspicious to the two Spurs defenders who should know better. 

 

And of course, there’s everything else: the defensive headers, the pressing, the insatiable flick-ons and crosses to her teammates. 

Here, really, lies the incomparable nature of Shaw. We shouldn’t labour under any delusions that what Shaw consistently manages is simple. But honestly, we’re running out of ways to tell you that Bunny Shaw is good. She probably deserves the title of Best Striker in World Women’s Football — less a gamble of opinion and more of an objective observation. Shaw has been too ruthless too many times to be considered a revelation. Yet so often, she reveals feats to this game that, through any other lens, feel ridiculous. 

“I felt like I was playing FIFA,” City and USWNT midfielder Sam Coffey said afterwards. “When you can just score three goals in 20 minutes… it felt like a video game. She’s so dominant. I especially love her defensive effort today. She’s one of the best pressing No 9s in the world.”

Shaw’s hat-trick provided the foundation for City’s 5-2 victory over Spurs, putting head coach Andree Jeglertz’s side just three victories shy of guaranteeing their first WSL title in a decade. 

The title is an enormous triumph of the collective, but it’s hard to look past Shaw. Even as City boast 12 league goalscorers — a WSL high — Shaw remains unrivalled with 18, 10 more than her nearest City companions — Kerolin and Vivianne Miedema — and nine more than her nearest rival (Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson). 

At which point it’s prudent to mention the contract looming over all of this, the one Shaw has yet to extend with City despite its summer expiration and Chelsea have been credited with interest as their own world-class striking ranks shrink. Asking Jeglertz in his post-match press conference about Shaw’s contract can feel akin to a ruse, because surely it’s the simplest of matters: give Shaw anything, anything at all. Just keep her.

“That is (City Women’s director of football) Therese Sjogran’s table,” Jeglertz said when the topic of Shaw’s future came up. “Bunny’s a very important player and hopefully we’ll see where we are.”

To lose Shaw on a free to a direct rival in the weeks after stomping to the title over said rival, who is suffering their worst domestic season in recent history, would be an unfathomable blow to City, from a commercial and a sporting sense. If Shaw is the best in the world, then by law of transitive property, the club she represents is probably of the same chemical makeup.

But Shaw’s ability to be both the blunt instrument of City’s execution and so often their connective tissue is second to none. She has learnt to feint defenders, to play in her wingers Lauren Hemp and Kerolin, to press hard and press well. Only Hemp boasts a higher expected assists than Shaw in the City squad, illustrating how the chances Shaw is creating are of a high quality. 

“Both set plays (defending and attacking), how she’s pressing, how she’s setting up other players,” Jeglertz said. “She’s developed that part of her game since the beginning of the season. It’s showing what she’d like to bring to the team. It’s not just scoring.”

Of course, there will always be scoring. It’s a measure of Shaw’s accepted brilliance that even Saturday’s exploit was greeted with a degree of fatalism in the terraces and online, that with 80 league goals in 89 appearances, this is just what Shaw does. 

Yet, as the Joie Stadium’s announcer declared with no real surprise that Shaw was Saturday’s player of the match, City fans vociferously implored back to “sign her up!” 

Shaw might be inevitable — but it’s best she’s inevitable for you. 

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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