Hi Pieter, I coach u8's in Rsa, what we have done this year alot is play a simple game of "piggy in the middle" with a few additional rules, two piggies, they can't touch the players with the ball, players with ball need to pass in 3 seconds, we make a square roughly 20m x 20m and have 15 boys in the square. We give penalty of 2 burpees for a dropped ball or holding on for longer than 3 secs and 5 burpees for bunching. Whole team with ball does penalty movement. We then rotate piggies after 2/3 mins.  It has worked wonders and it's a fun warmup game. Hope it helps. Cheers Rhett

Pieter,

This is a great question.

And, the answer is...be patient!

The players' tactical awareness is very unsophisticated at this age.

Instead, in games, make them aware of what looks good and why, and then let them play.

Over time, with positive reinforcement, especially in the moment and directly, they will start to "fill the field".

As for "drills", I would suggest small-sided scenarios, where they have to get into position and then attack.

For example, put six attackers one with a ball in front of three defenders. The ball carrier goes to ground and you count to three. The two groups spread out, and then the ball is passed away. 

You could ask the attacking team to make two or three passes before they can run.