Combine clean edge passing with continuous movement: pass along the edge, follow it to the back of that line, and keep the tempo up with eight players and one ball.
Mark a square about 24m a side with a cone on each corner and two players queued at each. The front player at one corner passes along the edge to the front player at the next corner, then jogs to the back of the line he just passed into. That player does the same, so the ball travels the edges and every player rotates one corner on with it. Start two touch and go to one touch once it flows. Change direction on the coach's call, and add a second ball on the opposite diagonal when the group is ready.
This is the version of the passing square that most academies open a session with, and the reason it survives is that one rule solves the problem every simpler version has. A square with four players and no movement runs out of value in about two minutes. Put two players on each corner and make everybody follow their pass, and the same square now occupies eight players continuously with nobody queueing for long enough to cool down.
Following the pass is also the habit worth building. The most common fault in young players is not a technical one, it is that they pass and then watch. In this square, watching has an immediate and obvious cost: the corner you were supposed to fill is empty when the ball comes round, and the whole group notices. The exercise punishes the fault without the coach having to say anything.
The technical standard is the same as any passing square, and it comes down to which foot. A pass to the back foot lets the receiver open out along the next edge and play first time. A pass to the front foot turns him back towards where the ball came from, and he needs a touch to fix it. In a one touch rotation, that single touch is the difference between the drill flowing and the drill stopping.
Communication matters more here than in any four player version, simply because there are eight players, one ball, and two people at every corner. Calling the name before the pass tells the front man it is his, and tells the second man to stay. Without it, both step forward or neither does.
A second ball is the natural progression rather than a gimmick. Two balls travelling the same direction on opposite corners doubles the repetitions and forces players to scan before they receive, because the ball behind them is now closer than they think.
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.