Analysing Hibs' problems in front of goal and how interim boss David Gray might try to fix them

As things stand the club’s top scorer in all competitions, 14-goal Martin Boyle, is plying his trade more than 4,000 miles away in Saudi Arabia. Their second-top goalscorer – Kevin Nisbet, nine – is injured and sidelined until late 2022. The player in third – Kyle Magennis, with four – is also injured and won’t be back for the remainder of the season.

Wingback Chris Cadden, who sits on three goals in all competitions along with the departed Jamie Murphy, is Hibs’ most prolific available player until the end of the season.

Since Boyle left, Hibs have scored just 14 goals in all competitions; three of them coming from recognised strikers – Elias Melkersen’s brace against Motherwell in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals, and Nisbet’s strike in the previous round against Arbroath.

Hibs also drew blanks in eight league games during Maloney’s tenure. You can see the problem.

While Gray, who is in temporary charge until the end of the season, can only work with what he has available, he will hope to be able to engineer an upturn in fortunes in front of goal.

Boyle’s departure wasn’t planned, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected either. Without the versatile attacker, Hibs lack pace and goals.

Replacing him at any point wouldn’t be easy but perhaps especially not in January. Hibs have had limited success previously in winter transfer windows but they haven’t ever really needed to replace one key player in mid-season – certainly not one with the influence of Boyle.

Add to that the difficulty in finding a player capable of replicating what Boyle brought to the Hibs team and it becomes an even more complex task. Maloney admitted it would be hard to find a like-for-like replacement, although in Sylvester Jasper there have been fleeting