Andrew Nabbout's Urawa Red Diamonds won the Emperor's Cup overnight, pipping Vegalta Sendai 1-0 to continue manager Oswaldo Oliviera's incredible record in Japanese football.

Yet the Brazilian manager doesn't seem to think much of the Socceroos' World Cup striker, who is yet to score a goal for the Japanese giants after 15 appearances for the club across all competitions.

Although Nabbout was an unused subsitute in the final, he played only nine minutes in the entire competition. The Aussie has only started two J-League matches since joining the club, including his debut, and only four total across all three competitions.

The 25-year-old suffered a shoulder injury in May that kept him out of action until September, but despite experiencing a solid run of four matches off the bench after rejoining the squad, he was left out of the side entirely for the last two J-League matches of the season.

After working his way into a dream World Cup run under Bert van Marwijk, Nabbout now seems an outsider to make an impact at next month's Asian Cup, with Martin Boyle, Tomi Juric and Jamie Maclaren all seemingly ahead in Graham Arnold's strikers' stakes. 

Coincidentally, his former standout teammate Dimitri Petratos has also had an underwhelming season at Newcastle, leaving a very real prospect that none of the Newcastle Jets' resurgent talents last season will be involved in the upcoming Socceroos tournament. 

After a poor start to the season, Urawa made a comeback to finish fifth. In other Aussies Abroad news, Ange Postecoglou - who recently commited to stay in Japan as manager of Yokohama F Marinos - finished 12th.