Multiple virtual Monitors in Linux Guest with VMware Workstation 12

Question

First off: This question is not about displaying the guest on multiple host monitors.

The goal is to use multiple monitors in the guest OS, independently of the host's display layout.

In fact my PC running VMware Workstation only has one single Monitor.

The background is to conveniently test how a certain Linux software product behaves with multiple and exotic multi-monitor setups without having to create the physical setup.

Using a Windows 7 guest I was simply able to do the following:

This image shows a Windows 7 Guest with 3 virtual monitors being displayed in one VMWare Workstation window.

However, I'm unable to duplicate this setup using a Linux guest (in my case Ubunutu 16.10).

The Linux guest machine configuration exactly matches the Windows VM and I can see multiple displays in the xrandr output:

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 1 x 1, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
Virtual1 connected primary 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   800x600       60.00 +  60.32  
   2560x1600     59.99  
   1920x1440     60.00  
   1856x1392     60.00  
   1792x1344     60.00  
   1920x1200     59.88  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1360x768      60.02  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x768      59.87  
   1024x768      60.00* 
   640x480       59.94  
Virtual2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual6 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual7 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual8 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

And also the GUI display settings show only one available display.

How can I connect these disconnected displays?