Do you think if we had Ramos instead of Smalling, our defence would be better?
I love both players and I think if Ramos wasn't a nutter and loved his defensive tasks as much as Smalling does, he would be the best centre back in history. Sadly he isn't that despite his talent, he can defend like the best when he is on form but he is just isn't as dedicated to that part of his game so he just sort of forget to do the right things sometimes, and it is shown throughout his game. Especially through bad runs of form. Smalling on the other hand is really good at the basics of defending so he'll be consistent in his performances under many different circumstances, and I think he has proved that even in questionable form he is our best CB.
As for if our defence would be better off with a defender like Ramos, instead of Smalling I'm not sure. On one hand, to have a leader who is really good on the ball and has been holding his own on the highest level for really long is hard to turn down. Having him around might have had a positive effect on other defenders and other players as well, as he possess a degree of leadership that no current player in our squad can compare with, I think.
Smalling has his faults which sometimes are greatly overstated on here, probably because his qualities doesn't align with popular opinions on the art of defending. However despite him being another player in our squad who's aura doesn't resemble any of our former legends, or even current legends at other clubs, I'm one of those who think he is class at the art of defending. This world class term is determined by popular opinion, so it often comes easy for players who's team is successful. We're not. So its very very easy to say he isn't and never will be, because there is so many things that doesn't directly have anything to do with Smalling that have to come true before his performances is even considered for being world class. It is highly unlike that will be the consensus. I have no problem with that, but it shouldn't be used to discredit his importance for us.
To summarise, I would of course loved to have two great defenders in their own right here, but if I had to choose one then I think Ramos would be my choice. It is easy to say because we have seen what Smalling has done, and not what Ramos could do, but based more on the quality of the rest of our squad and Ramos leadership qualities, I think he would be more important for us than Smalling currently is. Maybe our defence wouldn't magically become a lot better immediately, maybe even worse at first as he would still have to play with Lindelof, Valencia etc.. but our team would benefit more from all of his qualities, than just the defensive stability of Smalling.
Realised this became unnecessary long for what was the question, sorry.