Fans mock Man United's embarrassing attempt of beating the offside trap in draw with Southampton

Manchester United have been heavily criticised for an 'embarrassing' attempt to beat an offside trap during their dismal 1-1 draw with Southampton on Saturday.

Southampton striker Che Adams cancelled out Jadon Sancho's early goal for the Red Devils.

United looked for a winner in the second half and thought they had it when Cristiano Ronaldo headed in from a free-kick.

But Ronaldo's header was quickly ruled out for offside by the linesman and the side-on replay showed the embarrassing attempt from United to beat Southampton's trap.

Ronaldo, Rashford, Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane and Paul Pogba had all moved beyond Southampton's line and into an offside position.

Despite the Red Devils poor attempt to beat the offside trap, that didn't stop them from questioning referee Stuart Attwell.

'How does this happen? It makes zero sense,' wrote one fan on Twitter.

'Don't have a brain in their heads,' added another.

'Shows the football IQ of our team that they wasted a few minutes arguing this with the ref in a game we were chasing a goal,' a third wrote.

'Shocking how long it even took VAR to check as well,' a fourth added.

'We hired a set-piece coach so that...let's count...six out of six players would be offside during set-pieces. That's who the worst signing in the club's history is,' a fifth said.

Manchester United have scored just one league goal from a set piece this season and manager Ralf Rangnick knows they must improve that area of his side's game.

'In the end, this is a question of training time, but is also a question of deliveries,' he stated. 'We have players who should be technically able to deliver the balls in the right way.

'We still need to improve in those areas, be more dangerous and effective from set-pieces.

'It's a question of training but it's also a question of quality of deliveries - even more so when it's free-kicks from the side or corner kicks.'

United now sit fifth in the Premier League, but recent form suggests they could face a tough task securing a top four finish this season.