The fleece layer for laying down a card web to form a fleece has a cross-lapping upper carriage, through which the card web is guided; a cross-lapping laying carriage, through which the card web coming from the upper carriage is guided and which serves to lay the card web down onto an output conveyor belt, and at least two card web conveyor belts for guiding the card web to the upper carriage and from there to the laying carriage. An upper run of a first endless card web conveyor belt extends from the infeed area of the fleece layer to the upper carriage and serves as a support surface for the card web. A positionally variable pressing means is provided, which can be actuated to produce a variable card web buffer in the upper run of the first card web conveyor belt.