Stina Blackstenius has been the talk of the town in the land of the WSL. The Swedish striker has been linked with both Manchester United and Arsenal, with the latter having the biggest chance of signing here. Obviously, the striker has been doing well, but how was her shooting like in the 2021 Damallsvenskan? I will try to illustrate that in this article.
I will look at Blackstenius’ shots and analyse where they come from, how well she is doing, and whether she is a force to be reckoned with. I will do that by looking at the shooting metrics compared to her peers, but also investigating more into her shots. The data and video come from Wyscout and were retrieved on January 13th, 2021.
Data
Looking at shot quality can be measured in different things. In the scatterplots below I will look at the volume of the shots and the expected goals that are generated through the shots.
In the graph aboce you see the shots per 90 and shots on target metrics. When we look at this we see that Blackstenius does very well with 4,82 shots per 90 of which 42,7% go on target. She performs way above average in these metrics.
In the scatterplot above you can see the number of shots per 90 of a certain player and the expected goals per 90 of that particular player in question. The reason we look at this is how many shots a player has in a game and how high the probability is of scoring an actual goal.
In the shot volume, we can see that Blackstenius has 4,82 shots per 90 and the corresponding xG per 90 minutes for Blackstenius is 0,81.
In the end, the most important thing for a striker is his output: goals. I’m looking at the probability of scoring a goal with a certain short and looking at the actual goals scored by a particular player per 90 minutes.
Looking at the expected goals per 90 minutes we see that Blackstenius has 0,81 per 90 minutes, while as we look at the actual goals scored per 90 minutes, we see that that is 0,80 per 90 minutes. She is slightly underperforming but only with 0,01 per 90 minutes – which is insanely good.
In the graph below you can see the percentile ranks of Blackstenius compared to the 42 players in my database. This shows in which percentile he is for every metric that belongs to the shooting side of the game.
As you can see in the image above, Blackstenius scored very high in the shooting metrics. In the head goals per 90 she scores in the 72nd percentile, but in the shots per 90, xG per 90 and goals per 90 – she scored in the highest percentile: the 99th percentile. This means in terms of data she was the best striker of Damallsvenskan when looking at shooting stats.
Shot locations
Stina Blackstenius has scored 17 goals in Damallsvenskan 2021season from 103 shots in total. That is a goal conversion rate of 16,50%. The expected goal is 17,37 – which means that Blackstenius is slightly underperforming her xG with – 0,37. In the visual above you can see the shot locations of every shot attempted in the current season. In red, you see the goals, and in black the shots. The black dots correspond with shots on target, while the ‘x’ means a blocked shot or a shot wide.
Video analysis
In the last part of this shot analysis, I will look at four of Blackstenius’ goals which show different skill in each of the goals, and therefore shows the quality she has in this Damallsvenskan season.
In the video above you Blackstenius with BK Häcken in their game against Djurgårdens IF. This attack is not that direct, but it illustrates how Blackstenius likes to play on the off-side line and stay close to her marker, just before making a movement and having the space to create something. In this case she runs away from her marker, reaches the ball earlier than the goalkeeper and heads the ball over the goalkeeper in goal.
In the video above you seen Blackstenius with BK Häcken in their game against Rosengård. Not every attacking can be direct over the ground with dominant possession of the ball. Blackstenius is good at receiving the ball in the air and for the link up play as a target-woman. In this case she wants to receive the high ball, wins the duel and while she is out of balance, still manages to find the far corner with her right foot.
In the video above you Blackstenius with BK Häcken in their game against Växjö DFF. She is very good in the penalty area and can have close control of the ball to create space for herself and finish the ball. This is what she does in this example. She again knows how to control the ball and within a few touches knows how to set herself up and shoot. Her finish is outstanding in the way that she manages to put it in the top corner from a difficult angle.
In the video above you can see Blackstenius with BK Häcken in their game against Vittsjö GIK. This goal illustrates how Blackstenius can be instrumental in set pieces. The quality here lies in the way she gets away from her marker and gets that few centimeters she needs to attack the ball and head the ball in goal. The detail in the movement is what makes her better than other strikers in the Damallsvenskan.v
