diff --git a/src/basic/cgroup-util.c b/src/basic/cgroup-util.c
index 48623fb235..67c2d3a681 100644
--- a/src/basic/cgroup-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/cgroup-util.c
@@ -542,6 +542,9 @@ static const char *controller_to_dirname(const char *controller) {
          * just cuts off the name= prefixed used for named
          * hierarchies, if it is specified. */
 
+        if (streq(controller, SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER))
+                controller = SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER_LEGACY;
+
         e = startswith(controller, "name=");
         if (e)
                 return e;
@@ -912,7 +915,7 @@ int cg_get_xattr(const char *controller, const char *path, const char *name, voi
 int cg_pid_get_path(const char *controller, pid_t pid, char **path) {
         _cleanup_fclose_ FILE *f = NULL;
         char line[LINE_MAX];
-        const char *fs;
+        const char *fs, *controller_str;
         size_t cs = 0;
         bool unified;
 
@@ -926,8 +929,14 @@ int cg_pid_get_path(const char *controller, pid_t pid, char **path) {
                 controller = SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER;
 
         unified = cg_unified(controller);
-        if (!unified)
-                cs = strlen(controller);
+        if (!unified) {
+                if (streq(controller, SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER))
+                        controller_str = SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER_LEGACY;
+                else
+                        controller_str = controller;
+
+                cs = strlen(controller_str);
+        }
 
         fs = procfs_file_alloca(pid, "cgroup");
         f = fopen(fs, "re");
@@ -964,7 +973,7 @@ int cg_pid_get_path(const char *controller, pid_t pid, char **path) {
 
                         *e = 0;
                         FOREACH_WORD_SEPARATOR(word, k, l, ",", state) {
-                                if (k == cs && memcmp(word, controller, cs) == 0) {
+                                if (k == cs && memcmp(word, controller_str, cs) == 0) {
                                         found = true;
                                         break;
                                 }
@@ -1810,6 +1819,9 @@ bool cg_controller_is_valid(const char *p) {
         if (!p)
                 return false;
 
+        if (streq(p, SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER))
+                return true;
+
         s = startswith(p, "name=");
         if (s)
                 p = s;
diff --git a/src/basic/def.h b/src/basic/def.h
index 2266eff650..3ba275f64b 100644
--- a/src/basic/def.h
+++ b/src/basic/def.h
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@
 /* The default value for the net.unix.max_dgram_qlen sysctl */
 #define DEFAULT_UNIX_MAX_DGRAM_QLEN 512UL
 
-#define SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER "name=systemd"
+#define SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER_LEGACY "name=systemd"
+#define SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER "_systemd"
 
 #define SIGNALS_CRASH_HANDLER SIGSEGV,SIGILL,SIGFPE,SIGBUS,SIGQUIT,SIGABRT
 #define SIGNALS_IGNORE SIGPIPE
diff --git a/src/core/cgroup.c b/src/core/cgroup.c
index 17e0857729..fbb711782e 100644
--- a/src/core/cgroup.c
+++ b/src/core/cgroup.c
@@ -1799,7 +1799,7 @@ int manager_setup_cgroup(Manager *m) {
         else if (cg_unified(SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER))
                 log_debug("Unified cgroup hierarchy is located at %s. Controllers are on legacy hierarchies.", path);
         else
-                log_debug("Using cgroup controller " SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER ". File system hierarchy is at %s.", path);
+                log_debug("Using cgroup controller " SYSTEMD_CGROUP_CONTROLLER_LEGACY ". File system hierarchy is at %s.", path);
 
         if (!m->test_run) {
                 const char *scope_path;