But Bilic, who featured for West Ham and Everton during his playing career, said he was left lost for words by their overall performance.
"They just didn't play as a group, they played as individuals," added Bilic, who replaced Zlatko Kranjcar after Croatia's failure to reach the last 16 in Germany.
"And I really thought they had a great chance to win the World Cup.
"You can look back now and say the team had had a long season, they were under pressure, there were big expectations on them - but they are all just excuses.
"I couldn't even explain it to my nine-year-old son. I just don't know."
Even though Eriksson left after England's World Cup exit, Bilic is still not completely impressed by new boss Steve McClaren after the laboured 1-0 win in Macedonia last month.
"I can't understand why they played so defensively at the World Cup," he said.
"But they were the same against Macedonia, so I don't think it was all down to Eriksson."
Croatia head into Wednesday's match with one point from their opening Euro 2008 qualifier - a 0-0 draw with Russia last month.
