diff --git a/manager-solution/manager/manager.py b/manager-solution/manager/manager.py
index 0d44b87..89f6637 100644
--- a/manager-solution/manager/manager.py
+++ b/manager-solution/manager/manager.py
@@ -230,27 +230,19 @@ def build_http_redirect(location: str) -> bytes:
     return "\r\n".join(headers).encode("utf-8")
 
 
-def build_user_host(host: str, user_id: str) -> Optional[str]:
-    if not host:
-        return None
+def rewrite_http_request_target(data: bytes, target: str) -> bytes:
+    header_end = data.find(b"\r\n")
+    if header_end == -1:
+        return data
 
-    hostname, separator, port = host.partition(":")
-    hostname = hostname.strip().lower()
-    if not hostname:
-        return None
+    request_line = data[:header_end].decode("iso-8859-1", errors="replace")
+    parts = request_line.split(" ", 2)
+    if len(parts) != 3:
+        return data
 
-    if hostname == "localhost":
-        target_host = f"{user_id}.localhost"
-    else:
-        labels = [label for label in hostname.split(".") if label]
-        if not labels:
-            return None
-        if labels[0] == user_id:
-            target_host = hostname
-        else:
-            target_host = ".".join([user_id, *labels])
-
-    return f"{target_host}:{port}" if separator else target_host
+    method, _, version = parts
+    rewritten_line = f"{method} {target} {version}".encode("iso-8859-1")
+    return rewritten_line + data[header_end:]
 
 
 def extract_user_from_http_request(data: bytes, known_users: Dict[str, Dict[str, Any]]):
@@ -287,13 +279,10 @@ def extract_user_from_http_request(data: bytes, known_users: Dict[str, Dict[str,
     if segments:
         candidate = segments[0]
         if candidate in known_users:
-            user_host = build_user_host(headers.get("host", ""), candidate)
-            if user_host:
-                redirect_path = "/" + "/".join(segments[1:]) if len(segments) > 1 else "/"
-                if separator:
-                    redirect_path = f"{redirect_path}?{query}"
-                redirect_target = f"http://{user_host}{redirect_path}"
-                return None, data, redirect_target
+            rewritten_path = "/" + "/".join(segments[1:]) if len(segments) > 1 else "/"
+            rewritten_target = f"{rewritten_path}?{query}" if separator else rewritten_path
+            rewritten_data = rewrite_http_request_target(data, rewritten_target)
+            return known_users[candidate], rewritten_data, None
 
     return None, data, None
 
diff --git a/manager-solution/manager/test_manager.py b/manager-solution/manager/test_manager.py
index 71f3353..fabcf67 100644
--- a/manager-solution/manager/test_manager.py
+++ b/manager-solution/manager/test_manager.py
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ class ManagerConfigTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(rewritten, request)
         self.assertIsNone(redirect_target)
 
-    def test_extract_user_from_path_returns_redirect_target(self):
+    def test_extract_user_from_path_rewrites_request_for_direct_proxying(self):
         request = (
             b"GET /user1/websockify?token=abc HTTP/1.1\r\n"
             b"Host: localhost:8080\r\n"
@@ -209,9 +209,17 @@ class ManagerConfigTests(unittest.TestCase):
 
         user, rewritten, redirect_target = self.manager.extract_user_from_http_request(request, users)
 
-        self.assertIsNone(user)
-        self.assertEqual(rewritten, request)
-        self.assertEqual(redirect_target, "http://user1.localhost:8080/websockify?token=abc")
+        self.assertEqual(user["id"], "user1")
+        self.assertEqual(
+            rewritten,
+            (
+                b"GET /websockify?token=abc HTTP/1.1\r\n"
+                b"Host: localhost:8080\r\n"
+                b"Upgrade: websocket\r\n"
+                b"\r\n"
+            ),
+        )
+        self.assertIsNone(redirect_target)
 
     def test_wait_until_ready_applies_stabilization_delay(self):
         sleep_calls = []