Player #827 for Aston Villa, Eric Joseph Bradley Lichaj played as a right back for the club between 2010-11 and 2012-13 making 42 appearances and scoring twice.

Lichaj was born in Downers Grove, Illinois on 17 November 1988 and joined Villa from Chicago Fire ’s youth set up in July 2007 as an 18 year old under Martin O’Neill’s reign.

Lichaj spent much of the 2009-10 season on loan at Lincoln City under former Villa player Chris Sutton.

Lichaj would have to wait until after O’Neill’s departure on the eve of the 2010-11 season before making his debut appearance under caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald in Villa’s UEFA Europa League tie against SK Rapid Wien on Thursday, 19 August 2010 aged 21.

Lichaj would make his second start for the club in Gérard Houllier’s first game on Wednesday, 22 September 2010 in the League Cup 3rd Round win over Blackburn Rovers.

Lichaj would start in the 4th round of the League Cup on Wednesday, 27 October 2010 before two consecutive substitute appearances in the Premier League - coming on in the 90’ and 88’.

Those appearances would coincide with Lichaj’s longest run in the squad - 14 games - that included 3 consecutive League starts in December 2010 that saw Villa beat West Bromwich Albion but lose to both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City 6 goals to 1 on aggregate.

Those would prove to be Lichaj’s last appearances of the season after which he spent a short period on loan at Leyton Orient.

New Villa boss Alex McLeish for 2011-12 would once again give Lichaj a League Cup start (in the Second Round home victory over Hereford United) during which Lichaj scored his first goal for the club - the opening goal in the 80’.

Lichaj wouldn’t return to the first team squad however until the end of January 2012 through a combination of injury and selection choices and would be an unused substitute on 5 occasions through February and March 2012 before making his first team return as a 78’ substitute for Alan Hutton in the 0-3 away defeat to Arsenal on Saturday, 24 March 2012.

That triggered a nine game starting run to the end of the 2011-12 season - his longest run in the first team - as Villa returned 4 losses and 5 draws, scoring 6 and conceding 15.

2012-13 saw another managerial change with Paul Lambert replacing McLeish and bringing with him a policy of recruiting and playing lower league players.

As a result Lambert named Lichaj in 30 of the first 32 squads of the season making 13 starts including Villa’s record 0-8 defeat to Chelsea in December 2012.

After that debacle Lichaj would make just 3 further Premier League starts and 2 substitute appearances whilst featuring more sporadically in Lambert’s struggling squad.

Lichaj made his final appearance for Villa on Saturday, 11 May 2013 in a 1-2 defeat to Chelsea before moving on to Nottingham Forest in July 2013 on a free transfer aged 24.