Rangers "don't need to speak about titles now", says manager Philippe Clement after his side were held to a draw by Dundee United.

Vaclav Cerny's leveller countered Sam Dalby's opener but the Ibrox side could not find the winner that would have moved them within six points of Aberdeen and six ahead of United.

Despite this draw being the first time Rangers have dropped points at Ibrox this season, they have now let 13 slip in their opening 12 league games and are 11 points behind leaders Celtic.

"We don't need to speak about titles now; we need to speak about raising our level because we don't have control over how many points other teams take," said Clement.

"It's totally not acceptable to lose that many points. We all know, I know, the players know so there's hard work to be done to make that better in the next couple of months."

Cerny and Nico Raskin drew saves from Jack Walton early on and Nedim Bajrami's powerful, curling effort was tipped wide by the goalkeeper.

However, a well-organised and dilligent United gained some territory and Vicko Sevelj's deep cross found Dalby unmarked to head past the exposed Jack Butland.

It almost got worse for Rangers when Dalby got into a good shooting position only to see his low effort blocked by a stray foot, and team-mate David Babunski headed wide from an unmarked position early in the second half.

Rangers improved after the break as United tried to hold on to what they had.

Substitute Danilo turned wide and Cerny's fierce effort flew past as the hosts tried to force their way level.

And the equaliser came when Cerny's one-two with Danilo ended with a cool finish from close range.

Walton then came to United's rescue when he kept out Ianis Hagi's long-range effort and Robin Propper's follow-up, before Hamza Igamane was also denied by the keeper.

Though Rangers boasted a 100% Premiership record at home this term prior to this, recent performances had been unconvincing and United knew they would have a chance if they restricted their hosts.

And, much like Rangers' recent League Cup semi-final win over Motherwell, they fell behind to a player ghosting in between two defenders to score, giving them another uphill task.

Going forward, Clement's side lacked urgency, tempo, width and conviction.

The half-time introductions of Hagi and Danilo for Mohamed Diomande and Cyriel Dessers addressed some of those issues, with the second-half display much improved.

The connection between Cerny and Danilo in particular worked well but Danilo and Hagi's exclusion from Rangers' European squad means neither will be able to feature away to Nice in Thursday's Europa League fixture.

Weather-related delays to United's arrival pushed the kick-off back to 15:45 GMT but the first whistle was not actually blown until 15:55.

They may have been late to arrive but took no time at all to enact their game plan, namely frustrating Rangers and seeking to take advantage of any openings that came their way.

Their first half was almost flawless in its execution but they did not react quickly enough to Rangers' half-time changes and found themselves defending their own box more and more as the game wore on.

Nonetheless, a point is more than valuable for Jim Goodwin's side and they host St Mirren and Kilmarnock in their next two league fixtures.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement: "Frustration about losing points in a game where you have much more chances than the opponent, much more possession also. But also frustration about our first half and the performance there.

"That was not good enough with not enough quality in the final third, not enough initiative there, not enough availability also for some players.

"I'm much more pleased about second half because we see the football that I want to see and that we produced in the past. We need to get that kind of performance 90 minutes long and then you win all these kind of games."

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin: "We're really pleased with the point but slightly disappointed that we weren't able to keep the clean sheet and take all three.

"The game plan was working well. We scored a really, really good goal. Second half, Rangers made some changes, penned us back for large periods in that second 45 minutes.

"It's the first time that Rangers have dropped points in the league here at Ibrox [this season]. Given the circumstances and the way our preparation went before the game, I think that's quite remarkable."