Observation 1: need to leave room for quality reinforcements (I realised this wasn't on after the R1 and R2 picks but, if anything, it was more important to go about things this way then and just a lot easier now).
Observation 2: the real carnage will be in the 1998-2008 period when pretty much ALL active players are from 1967-87. Actively avoid players at their peak then to begin with and leave that mess to find good fits at the end.
Observation 3: the NT rule takes precedence over the club rule. Stars at club level block a lot of randomers, at NT level they should block superior players, that's why they play for the NT. Therefore treat it as a one player per country draft firstly and prioritise cherry-picking smaller nations with few options.
Position-dependent observation: the pool is very deep and broad country-wise in XXXXXX, then XXXXXX. XXXXXX, XXXXX and then XXXX (YYYY-type in particular) are the shallow pools to secure solid players early on. In that order.
Team style choice: here I went with what some of you suggested about not going mental but instead choose 2-3 players and then work out how to build around them. The thought of what we would have looked like in the early 00s in a 4-4-1-1 with Nedved instead of Veron had me drooling for days, so I chose to go for Nedved-van Nistelrooy and build from there.
They both massively obliterate the pool by being bang in the middle of it (Ruud in particular shoots down most United, Real and Netherlands picks, even Xabi Alonso for 3-4 shitty games before moving to Hamburg). At least this way I didn't have to keep second guessing myself.
This first bit took me no real time, just random musings while in the loo or bottle-feeding.
Planning work
1) Dust off my excel with ~500 players. It has position, country and decade, from previous drafts. After deleting off the top of my head the clearly ineligible 60s/80s I'm down to ~250. Cross out RVN/Nedved crossovers and loads of randomers I'm clearly not going to pick: db down to 160.
2) Slice the players by position to gage depth and quality gaps to establish positional priorities.
Note: not sure whether to pick Heaton or Randolph in this draft, thoughts?
3) Slice players by country split in 90s/00s. The pool already reduces considerably as you delete the players there's no chance in hell you are blocking that pool for (e.g. all Brazilians out thanks to Rogerio Ceni). I'm down to 120 before even arranging by club.
4) List major clubs and allocate players split in 90s, 00-08, 08-now (a matrix, basically). Cross out players there's no way you are blocking that club for. Down to ~80.
In short, Zanetti would block all Argentina and Inter eras so if you pick him assume both pools are shot (that was easily 25% of my database). Love Pupi, but can't afford him, not after the Nedved and RvN hits.
This takes 2-3 hours, but I have the key elements needed to try optimise both the country and club dimension without bothering check the fineprint of every single club every single player played of until I'm ready to pull the trigger on them.
Rounds
R1-2: I still thought reinforcements were open so didn't bother with Brazil or Argentina as I didn't want key players I would then dispose of to accommodate Messi/Ronaldo/etc. Nedved was nailed on, I still wasn't happy about RvN's damage (inc. Cristiano reinforcement) so chose to leave it to fate. I thought the German and Bayern pools were both relatively poor, I had listed less than 10 players jointly and I love peak Bastian. Picks: Nedved and Schweinsteiger.
R3-4: I have found out about reinforcements banned for R1-2. Yummy forwards mostly gone never to return, so pulling trigger on Ruud. Worried about a gap emerging in defence relative to those with Maldinis and Nestas. I had prioritised Thiago as a Brazilian non-GOAT blocker but he has been picked, will have to ride the ball-player and pick him up in reinforcements. If I ride the ball-player I need a good stopper and Ruud/Nedved already obliterate most. Nedved has also destroyed most of the Argie pool thanks to Lazio (and Benarrivo takes down a few at Parma). It's really Javier or Ratón and I have my eyes cast on Mauro Silva anyway. Picks: Ruud and Ayala
R5-6: Feck, Mauro is gone. So is my precious Lucho and many others. Cross remaining defensively strong midfielders and country/club pools. Also, fullback is going to be a bitch if I miss out on Benarrivo/Petrescu. Since I'm riding the ball-playing defender Popescu will be a goner by then, so close up Romania, and Chelsea (I already know Deschamps is gone). Picks: Essien and Petrescu.
R7-R8: I had left Benarrivo for later assuming as an Italian and Parma guy he was somewhat safer than Petrescu. The other guy hasn't been picked. Picks: Benarrivo and AN Other.
