the latest seasons Gert is playing with the same one lv above teams in CH.L.. One of them it's the Castle, an active and strong team.
So that's why I recommend to stay in the same lv, enforce the team, avoid Castle and go for the CH.L. too.
I've seen his previous posts on the subject, hence my (intended sarcastic) advice to go for promotion - like he needs to be subjected to that situation again...
Any formation or tactics advice given is based purely on experience with my teams...