diff --git a/plugins/connection/podman.py b/plugins/connection/podman.py
index 1ea1f94..6eea59f 100644
--- a/plugins/connection/podman.py
+++ b/plugins/connection/podman.py
@@ -109,7 +109,11 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
                 to_native(
                     self.get_option('podman_extra_args'),
                     errors='surrogate_or_strict'))
-        local_cmd.append(cmd)
+        if isinstance(cmd, str):
+            local_cmd.append(cmd)
+        else:
+            local_cmd.extend(cmd)
+
         if use_container_id:
             local_cmd.append(self._container_id)
         if cmd_args:
@@ -149,10 +153,11 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
 
         # shlex.split has a bug with text strings on Python-2.6 and can only handle text strings on Python-3
         cmd_args_list = shlex.split(to_native(cmd, errors='surrogate_or_strict'))
+        exec_args_list = ["exec"]
         if self.user:
-            cmd_args_list += ["--user", self.user]
+            exec_args_list.extend(("--user", self.user))
 
-        rc, stdout, stderr = self._podman("exec", cmd_args_list, in_data)
+        rc, stdout, stderr = self._podman(exec_args_list, cmd_args_list, in_data)
 
         display.vvvvv("STDOUT %r STDERR %r" % (stderr, stderr))
         return rc, stdout, stderr
@@ -161,7 +166,7 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         """ Place a local file located in 'in_path' inside container at 'out_path' """
         super(Connection, self).put_file(in_path, out_path)
         display.vvv("PUT %s TO %s" % (in_path, out_path), host=self._container_id)
-        if not self._mount_point:
+        if not self._mount_point or self.user:
             rc, stdout, stderr = self._podman(
                 "cp", [in_path, self._container_id + ":" + out_path], use_container_id=False
             )