The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder has been speaking about his team-mate and working with new head coach Roberto De Zerbi
Rodrigo Bentancur has no other word for Pedro Porro than "machine" as the Tottenham right-back prepares to make his 150th appearance for the club in Monday night's clash with Leeds.
While Spurs ' constant injury problems over recent years have claimed many of their star players, Porro has mostly avoided such woes, missing just seven games through injury in three-and-a-half years since arriving from Sporting Lisbon. That means the 26-year-old Spaniard will hit the 150 game mark as Daniel Farke's side come to town while others who arrived before him have yet to.
Bentancur will reach 145 matches for Tottenham on Monday evening and, having arrived a year before Porro, recognises how much of an ability availability is.
"Pedro is a machine. 150 games is incredible and also a young player, you know, but I have a really good relationship with him. My family, with his family, we have barbecues at home on the children's birthdays. He is a really good person and this is the most important thing for me," said the Uruguayan.
"When I arrived here, he arrived after and we speak the same language, it felt really good. He is a top professional. He works very, very well every day here [at the training ground], at home, so he deserves this moment and he needs to enjoy it because he is still a young player and has a top future."
Porro wears his emotions on his face whether he's flying into a challenge or furious at a defeat. Bentancur loves that about his team-mate and believes it's exactly what struggling Spurs need to get out of their current plight.
"He is passionate, you know. You can see the images from the last game [against Aston Villa]. Every tackle, every ball he wins, like [Joao] Palhinha, so we need this. In this moment, we need personality, attitude, so when he shows this for us, it's really, really important," he said.
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Bentancur reassured Spurs fans that he is not injured after needing treatment a couple of times before coming off in the 2-1 win at Villa Park on Sunday, saying he was a just "a little bit tired" and did not want to take any risks after returning recently from a serious hamstring injury.
The 28-year-old midfielder is enjoying life under Roberto De Zerbi and believes the Italian head coach has quickly changed the mood inside the camp and got the 17th-placed club moving towards his brand of football.
"When Roberto came in, he tried to change the energy, the mentality, to feel again the positive things and he worked a lot on this. And I think we changed, the players changed, we understand the situation and after you're back to winning games, the energy changed a lot and we feel really good," said Bentancur.
"We changed a lot in the last week with Roberto, the characteristics, the players, you know he adapts. You can see also in the games, we changed a lot. Roberto tries to work in a positive way, in the mentality, positive aspect. He said 'you guys [used to] play really well, now we need to start to play again'.
"So we worked on this. He works really well in the tactical aspect and then with the ball, he is amazing, and we try to do it. What we work in the week, we try to do the same in the game and the last game against Villa, we showed how we want to play. We want to continue."
Despite De Zerbi saying he is not putting too much change on his players, Bentancur believes they are playing in a different way under the new head coach.
"We enjoy it with the ball and the tactical aspect without the ball. We start now and now we work really well. You can see the last game against Villa, we pressed in high positions, we want to win the ball fast and then with the ball, Roberto wants to play calm," explained the midfielder.
"When we can go fast, we go fast. Otherwise, we play, enjoy, we move, so I think the team felt really good."
He added: "He is a passionate boss. If he needs to push, he pushes, but otherwise, he said 'with the ball please guys, play, enjoy' and we need to work and we need to win on Monday.
"When I came back against Brighton, the fans showed me a lot of love and the atmosphere was really, really good. Amazing. We need to work really hard and we need to win these three finals."