BURNLEY captain Jason Shackell is the 15th best defender in Europe this season after outperforming the likes of Sergio Ramos and John Terry, according to statistics released this week.

Shackell is the 10th best player in the Premier League and the third best defender – marginally ahead of Clarets summer target Craig Dawson - after helping Burnley to four clean sheets in the first 11 games of the campaign.

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Not only that, but the skipper has made more clearances this term than any other defender in the top five leagues in Europe – the Premier League, La Liga in Spain, the German Bundesliga, Serie A in Italy and Ligue 1 in France.

Shackell has made 128 clearances – more than 10 per match, including 14 in the 0-0 draw at home to Manchester United, which was statistically his best performance of the season.

The data comes from online fantasy football game www.oulala.com, which uses sophisticated statistics sourced from Opta.

Shackell may be part of a Burnley team that still sit bottom of the Premier League table with the joint third worst defensive record in the league – they have shipped 19 goals, only exceeded by QPR and Crystal Palace.

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But Southampton and Swansea City are the only two teams to have kept more clean sheets this season, while leaders Chelsea have kept one less.

West Bromwich Albion have matched Burnley’s total of four shut-outs and Dawson - the man Burnley tried to sign in the summer, most likely with an eye on partnering him with Shackell - is currently ranked 19th in Europe.

Both are above Real Madrid and Spain defender Ramos, as well as Chelsea skipper Terry and Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany, in the rankings.

Shackell is only behind Everton’s Leighton Baines and Hull City’s Curtis Davies in the Premier League, and statistics show he has won 61 of his 87 head to head battles during games this season.

He has drawn four times as many fouls as he has committed – a rare statistic for a defender.

The European rankings are currently topped by 37-year-old Brazilian Hilton, who plays for French mid-table side Montpellier.

Europe’s best defenders: 1 Hilton (Montpellier), 2 Naldo (Wolfsburg), 3 Uwe Hunemeier (Paderborn), 4 Nicolas N’Koulou (Marseille), 5 Raul Albentosa (Eibar), 6 Leighton Baines (Everton), 7 Ricardo Rodriguez (Wolfsburg), 8 Damien Da Silva (Caen), 9 Mexer (Rennes), 10 Papy Djilobodji (Nantes), 11 Curtis Davies (Hull), 12 Abdelhamid El Kaoutari (Montpellier), 13 Issa Cissokho (Nantes), 14 Sebastien Squillaci (Bastia), 15 Jason Shackell (Burnley), 16 Simon Kjaer (Lille), 17 Guido Milan (Metz), 18 Ryan Shawcross (Stoke City), 19 Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion), 20 Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea).

Oulala is a free to play, weekly European fantasy football game offering prizes to its top three managers every week. To register and play visit www.oulala.com/en/register