Selecting disabled default option with Thymeleaf - thymeleaf

Question

I've got a select menu that I've created with Thymeleaf. I need the menu to have no default choice. Usually this is done with a disabled extra option, and that I have done too. Now, the issue is that I just cannot get the selected attribute to render into the resulting HTML. This appears to break IE, which then defaults to the first non-disabled option. This is what I've got:
<select th:field="*{serviceName}" required="required" >
<option th:selected="true" th:disabled="true" th:value="NOT_SELECTED" th:text="'Pick one'"></option>
<option th:each="entry : ${form.services}"
th:value="${entry.key}" th:text="${entry.value}">
</option>
</select>
and it renders like this:
<select required="required" id="serviceTechnicalName" name="serviceTechnicalName">
<option disabled="disabled" value="NOT_SELECTED">Pick one</option>
<option value="SERVICE1">Service One</option>
<option value="SERVICE2">Service Two</option>
</select>
What am I doing wrong? I've been fiddling with different combinations of these different options for at least an hour already, it shouldn't be this difficult...
FWIW, this appears to be a duplicate question, but the answers there aren't doing it for me. There also isn't an accepted answer there.

Answer 1

Apparently, when using th:field it does not work. Look at this post.
However, I do not think you have to use th:selected as there is no processing in the server.
Have you tryied something like:
<select th:field="*{serviceName}" required="required" >
<option value="" selected="selected">Selecione</option>
<option th:each="entry : ${form.services}"
th:value="${entry.key}" th:text="${entry.value}">
</option>
</select>

Answer 2

Well, the forum post that Kimy82 suggested goes deep down into some Java configuration hole, so the solution did not appeal to me.
I then upgraded my Spring Boot from 1.3.3-RELEASE to 1.4.0-RELEASE. Then I spent a while trying to upgrade Thymeleaf from version 2 to version 3, but apparently could not get all the dependencies and excluded transitive dependencies right.
So in the end I did this:
<script type="text/javascript">
window.addEventListener('load', function () {
document.getElementById('serviceTechnicalName').value='NOT_SELECTED';
});
</script>
Now, it's not the answer I was looking for, but it does the job...