Some say that he started to drop deep after 2015.
But he is dropping deep since 1999'
https://youtu.be/yT7yw-vqKNA
Some will say that he had bad midfielders in this match so he had to drop deep.
One of your funniest posts yet, I actually lol'd.
But considering it's 1999 the "modern winger" wasn't in vogue yet, the classical no. 10 and wide midfielders however, were. Messi was probably being trained and employed as Maradona type no. 10 at that stage like most talented quick left footed wingers were back then.