Coach Ange Postecoglou said the new 3-2-4-1 formation didn’t have a major say in the outcome which left the Aussies' World Cup campaign balanced on a knife's edge.

But former Socceroo, Ognenovski, said Postecoglou’s men failed to come to grips with the switch to three at the back. 

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“The result is a point away from home – it’s a point against a team that everyone else seems to be beating which is disappointing for us,” Ognenovski told Fox Sports.

“We’re three points now off top spot, and a bit of goal difference.

“I think when they look at the game, yes we got a point, but when they analyse where things went wrong  - there was a change of formation that I don’t think that we dealt with very well.

“I thought that the Iraqi team exploited the holes that we left and if it wasn’t for some last ditch defending, especially in the last 20 minutes from Mile Jedinak who was almost playing as a centre half, I think it would have been an ugly result for us.”

The Socceroos notched up their fourth consecutive draw and trail Saudi Arabia and Japan in Group B with the only the top two teams automatically qualifying for Russia 2018.

Rudan said Postecoglou was unlikely to stop tinkering with the formation.

“One thing’s for sure and that is Ange will do it his way and he’s changed formations consistently throughout this qualifying process,’ he said.

“So if he does change (again) it wouldn’t surprise me.”

Defenders Bailey Wright and Milos Degenek were often isolated in the clash against Iraq and Rudan added: “I’m not sure that (Postecoglou)  understood the exact dangers that Iraq posed when you play that kind of system.

“Iraq caught us napping in those wider areas.”

“Now If I was the UAE I’d be having a look at the videotape before Tuesday and saying well we can expose these guys if we win the ball in certain areas.”

Rudan said: “At the end of the day it was a point gained, yes we had chances ourselves. We could’ve gone two-nil up. We had a couple of really good opportunities to win the game but so did Iraq.

“What I do know is we need to improve very very quickly on Tuesday night, which has now almost become a must-win for us.”