Keep the ball in a 6v3 and play with purpose. Support at angles, move the ball to shift the three defenders, and split them with a line-breaking pass across the box when the gap opens.
Six players around a box keep the ball against three defenders. Support at angles and move the ball to shift the three, then split them with a firm pass across the box when the gap appears. Two touch on the outside, one touch when you can. Rotate the three defenders after a set time or number of splits.
Six against three is a comfortable overload, and that comfort is the problem the coach has to solve. Left alone, a group this size will pass the ball around the outside for ten minutes, complete forty passes, feel successful, and practise nothing they could not already do. The numbers make retention easy, so retention cannot be the objective.
The fix is a condition that makes progress the point: a pass that splits the three defenders scores, and simply keeping it does not. Once that is in place the exercise changes character immediately, because players start looking through the middle rather than around the outside, and the defenders start defending the lane rather than chasing the ball.
Supporting at angles matters more with six than with four, oddly, because there is room for players to become lazy. Two teammates standing on the same line either side of the ball look like support and offer one angle between them. A yard of adjustment turns one option into two, and with six players the coach has to insist on it rather than rely on necessity.
The defenders need a genuine incentive too. Three chasing a ball they cannot win will switch off within a minute, which makes the exercise easier still. Giving them something to win, a point for a turnover or a set number of touches to force, keeps the pressure real.
Moving the ball to shift the defenders, rather than moving it for its own sake, is the habit worth naming repeatedly.
Save it to your private drills, then change the animation, adjust positions, swap equipment, or drop it into a session block. Or start from a blank pitch and build your own.