Isolate the pass that breaks a defensive line, and the short work that creates the angle for it. Players learn that the penetrating pass is set up by the two or three passes before it, not found on its own.
Set three mannequins in a straight line across the middle of an area about eleven by thirteen metres, with a marker either side. Five players. Work short on one side of the line, two or three quick passes, then play through a gap in the mannequins to a player beyond it. Work short on that side, then break the line back the other way. Two touch, and never play around the end of the mannequin line.
Coaches talk constantly about breaking lines and rarely give players a way to practise it in isolation. The pass usually gets trained inside a larger possession exercise, where it happens once every thirty seconds and is buried among a hundred other decisions.
Stripping everything else away, as this does, means the line-break happens every few seconds instead. Three mannequins, a marker either side, five players, and the entire exercise is: prepare, break the line, prepare, break it back. In fifteen minutes a group will play that pass more times than a full session of eleven-a-side would ever offer.
The lesson that emerges is that the penetrating pass is almost never available on receipt. Players try it immediately, find a mannequin in the way, and conclude the pass was not on. It was not on yet. Two or three short passes on the near side shift the angle, and then the same gap that was closed is open. Feeling that difference is worth more than being told it.
Going round the end of the line is the escape route and it has to be closed off. It is quicker, it always works, and it teaches nothing at all, because in a match the line extends across the pitch and there is no end to go round. This is one of the few constraints where the coach genuinely has to keep saying it, because the temptation returns every time the short work gets scrappy.
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.