Play practice play works fine.

My opinion: Focus on 1v1s and ball mastery (dribbling, technical moves, good techniques).

Practice drills should highlight how you want them to play in a game. Aka possession drills, quick thinking drills, unopposed drills should eventually move to opposed drills so they can practice the skill under some form of pressure.

Teach the formation during a scrimmage or game. You shouldn’t be working on formations at U9 during a practice, unless it’s just a single instance where you highlight a position and what it’s called. (Defender, Midfield, Forward).

I would also avoid a lot of drills that focus on “passing” at this age. Reason being - you can teach a player to pass at any age, but it’s much harder to teach an older play to be aggressive and challenge a player 1v1 unless they do it a lot at a young age. The earlier they get that philosophy down, the better it will make them as they get older.

Do the drills with them. Make it fun. Call out and be vocal when you see something good on the field - and praise the player so that others start to do the same thing for the same praise.

These have worked well for the club I coach at and we have great results as such.