Maguire will cancel out far more attacks than Smalling by losing the ball inside his own half trying passes that are risky.
We have had incredible passers at the club and they all ended up smashing it over to Valencia. He's a ball magnet for whatever reason. Blaming the fact that he gets plenty of the ball on our CBs is yet another absurd suggestion where people are clutching at straws to downplay our players. You obviously dont like Smalling and Jones but you dont have to make up excuses not to like them.
We also have extremely significant cash invested into our midfield over the past 5 years. Now you want a CB to bypass midfield and attempt to play the ball to strikers.
Don't you think a passing specialist midfielder is more likely to make that pass?
That's like every big club in world football saying "there's no point buying a big tall strong defender who can pass the ball competently to our attackers because we have just spent x amount on our midfield". Of course you want a defender that can do more than just defend. Bypassing our midfield can lead to faster counter-attacks, a variation of play. Of course I wouldn't like to see our midfield bypassed every single time, I'd just like to see a new dimension to our play in comparison to our very poor ball-playing CB's we currently have. Lindelof plays the ball well and I look forward to seeing him develop further.
We haven't had incredible passers at the club in quite a while actually. Incredible is a word that rightfully describes someone like Michael Carrick or Paul Scholes - they certainly didn't "all end up smashing it over to Valencia", they looked for a fast paced forward pass whenever possible.
I see Smalling hopelessly pass it out to Valencia a shedload more than I see other players play it out to Valencia.
Just off the top of my head I can say that Maguire is better than Smalling and Jones at: defensive headers, striding out of the defence with the ball, passing ability, confidence on the ball, attacking headers, injury proneness.
I've watched Maguire for a few years closely now and appreciated his ability well before the world cup. It's no coincidence he popped one in against us at the death last season and our CB's couldn't get near him.