Great read, yorky.. Been off for a while, too much to do to check in regularly but 1. I'm really glad that Lucas is starting to show what I saw him do (more or less) in Gremio and 2. Babel, as much as he's an enigma, I agree with many in here that the main problem is in his head.
I don't think it is that he does'nt understand what to do - he's shown, on several occasions that he can combine his strengths to great effect, wheter it's a packed defence or not. I think it's more that he's heavily influenced by mood (in effect: circumstance), because he's always looking like an alibi-player when not playing well (tracking back, but not making his best effort, going forward looking uninspired, hesitant). Bad decision-making, a touch too many e.t.c. seems to cohere with the mood of the player. In that sense, Babel is not at all a Rafa player, and I said a long time ago when we were talking about the L3 thread and judging player qualities, that the reason for Rafa acquiring Babel was that he saw a player with cutting-edge qualities, and also that the player was willing to learn. The cutting-edge qualities will no doubt manifest themselves again.
My guess is also, that the decision to mostly play Babel on either flank is a decision taken with Babel's own development in mind - it is a position where he will get more involved directly in game movements and off the ball (defensive) movements than if he'd played as a striker from the start - which will make him more conscious about those issues and should contribute to improve the player's game-awareness and decision-making.
The question is, will Babel have the patience, will Rafa have the patience and will Babel develop his game/self-esteem/self-awareness up until the point that he's less dependant on mood to perform? When it comes to Rafa - he's shown a lot of patience with f.i. Yossi, who has left a lot to be desired at times.. Due to the nature of mood and the mind itself, It's extremely hard to predict the contingencies that would change the current situation with Babel. Maybe someone have a good idea about Babel - the person?
Obviously the problem with the question of play or not to play Babel is - a Babel in form (in mood) can win/change a game on his own, while a Babel out of form (not in the mood) can be outright detrimental to our team-play (that has been particularly clear at times when he's come on as a sub this season).