That is exactly what he lacked before. He has a way better offense than his brother but Rafael made up for it with defensive improvements and started being rated very high due to it. Fabio just didn't seem to have the same mentality of refusing to let anybody pass. Rafael fouled away a lot due to that mentality in the start but he has improved a lot since then and now that mentality really shines through in a good way.
Fabio at QPR has that exact same mentality, something I never saw in him before. Previously he looked most interesting in playing football when we had the ball but in QPR he really thinks not letting the opponent pass is the number 1 concern and any sort of offense is secondary.
That is exactly what he was sent there to learn. I think that Moyes will also be very beneficial for Fabio/Rafael as he wants extremely offensive wing-backs to provide width and crosses which suits them great. That probably means Smalling/Jones won't see a lot of games as right backs which will be good for us.
Spot on - Fabio is just as mentally strong as Rafael, but simply not as 'mental'. He has always been extremely elegant and composed as a player, which is the reason he played winger for Brasil youth (while being captain), took free-kicks, etc. He was simply much more refined. However, it would take him a long time to let the quality shine through when playing at the PL pace because of his slight frame, inexperience and injury problems. Rafael was very different, in that he had a 'me against the world' bull-dog mentality, which was obviously aided by his impressive physique he has managed to build in the last 2 years. Thankfully, Fabio is now showing he has what it takes to be a top class player.
Again correct about Moyes, too - just watch any Everton game. He uses 2 inside forwards (like Mirallas) around his centre forward, which means the front men provide 0 natural width in that 4321 formation. Instead, he has his 2 full-backs providing all the attacking wide-play, & we will see an even better, more Manchester United-like version of that here because our full-backs can attack with a lot more freedom knowing that they have the quality of Rio & Vidic behind them, instead of Jagielka and Yobo, or something of that sort. It is the perfect style of football for the twins to flourish in, & I have no doubt they'll do just that. & Yes, hopefully Smalling is now going to be first choice step-in for when one of Rio or Vida are not available, as he is clearly the future. I don't know about you, but Jones simply is terrible at right-back. All the better for Rafael.