The Hindu "hugging saint," Amma, is purported to have bestowed her karmic embrace on some 33 million people since she turned 14. Jurgen Klopp has a ways to go before equaling that number, but, if Friday was any indication, he might catch her by the end of the season.
One by one, Klopp hugged his Liverpool players after they had squeezed the life out of Chelsea, winning 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. The manly clinches might have varied in duration and ferocity -- Adam Lallana, for instance, was fortunate not to suffer two broken ribs after Klopp bear-hugged him so fiercely he lifted him clear off the ground -- but they all sent the same message of love, togetherness and gegenpress.
After this latest road warrior display, Liverpool's spiritual guru knows two important things about his players:
1. They have completely bought into his "run until you drop and then run some more" philosophy.
2. None of them is a germaphobe.
Klopp, of course, has always acted like an enthusiastic golden retriever greeting the family. Has there ever been a manager so nakedly encouraging of his players? Could you imagine Jose Mourinho ever being that affectionate or even happy? It's so much less exhausting to simply assign blame to your players, the referee and Lady Luck, all of which the Manchester United manager did after losing for the third time in nine days. Hug it out, Jose; hug it out.
Unlike Mourinho, the effervescent German believes in the power of collective football rather than relying on the individual brilliance of $150 million French game-changers. His great Dortmund sides produced such stars as Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze and Marco Reus, but it was the furious intensity and high tempo of the team's overall pressing and interplay that made them so dangerous and so exhilarating.
Now the same can be said for his Liverpool side; while they are a long way from evoking comparisons with Jurgen's Bundesliga champions in 2010-11 and 2011-12, the Reds are increasingly fluent in KloppBall. What makes their early-season rise all the more impressive is that Liverpool has now taken seven away points from Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham as well as dismantling defending champions Leicester 4-1 at home.