Template Parsing Error with Thymeleaf 3 and Spring Boot 2.1

Hopefully this isn't a repeated question but I've spent some time searching and couldn't find anyone with the same problem or useful resolution. I've created a new application using Spring Initializr with the following dependencies for a simple web app that access kafka:

Web, DevTools, JPA, MySQL, Kafka, and Security

I followed a paired down version of a previous application I created in Spring Boot 1.5.14 and Thymeleaf 3 but cannot get my basic login form to work - I keep getting a template parsing error as follows:

There was an unexpected error (type=Internal Server Error, status=500).
An error happened during template parsing (template: "class path resource [templates/index.html]")
org.thymeleaf.exceptions.TemplateInputException: An error happened during template parsing (template: "class path resource [templates/index.html]") at org.thymeleaf.templateparser.markup.AbstractMarkupTemplateParser.parse(AbstractMarkupTemplateParser.java:241) at org.thymeleaf.templateparser.markup.AbstractMarkupTemplateParser.parseStandalone(AbstractMarkupTemplateParser.java:100) at org.thymeleaf.engine.TemplateManager.parseAndProcess(TemplateManager.java:666) at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1098) at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1072) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.view.ThymeleafView.renderFragment(ThymeleafView.java:362) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.view.ThymeleafView.render(ThymeleafView.java:189) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1370) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:1116) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:1055) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:942) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:998) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:890) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:634) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:875) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:231) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.springframework.web.filter.RequestContextFilter.doFilterInternal(RequestContextFilter.java:99) at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.springframework.web.filter.FormContentFilter.doFilterInternal(FormContentFilter.java:92) at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:93) at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:200) at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:199) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:96) at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:490) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:139) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:92) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:74) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:343) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:408) at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:66) at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:770) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1415) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) Caused by: org.attoparser.ParseException: Error during execution of processor 'org.thymeleaf.spring5.processor.SpringInputGeneralFieldTagProcessor' (template: "index" - line 12, col 37) at org.attoparser.MarkupParser.parseDocument(MarkupParser.java:393) at org.attoparser.MarkupParser.parse(MarkupParser.java:257) at org.thymeleaf.templateparser.markup.AbstractMarkupTemplateParser.parse(AbstractMarkupTemplateParser.java:230) ... 52 more Caused by: org.thymeleaf.exceptions.TemplateProcessingException: Error during execution of processor 'org.thymeleaf.spring5.processor.SpringInputGeneralFieldTagProcessor' (template: "index" - line 12, col 37) at org.thymeleaf.processor.element.AbstractAttributeTagProcessor.doProcess(AbstractAttributeTagProcessor.java:117) at org.thymeleaf.processor.element.AbstractElementTagProcessor.process(AbstractElementTagProcessor.java:95) at org.thymeleaf.util.ProcessorConfigurationUtils$ElementTagProcessorWrapper.process(ProcessorConfigurationUtils.java:633) at org.thymeleaf.engine.ProcessorTemplateHandler.handleStandaloneElement(ProcessorTemplateHandler.java:918) at org.thymeleaf.engine.TemplateHandlerAdapterMarkupHandler.handleStandaloneElementEnd(TemplateHandlerAdapterMarkupHandler.java:260) at org.thymeleaf.templateparser.markup.InlinedOutputExpressionMarkupHandler$InlineMarkupAdapterPreProcessorHandler.handleStandaloneElementEnd(InlinedOutputExpressionMarkupHandler.java:256) at org.thymeleaf.standard.inline.OutputExpressionInlinePreProcessorHandler.handleStandaloneElementEnd(OutputExpressionInlinePreProcessorHandler.java:169) at org.thymeleaf.templateparser.markup.InlinedOutputExpressionMarkupHandler.handleStandaloneElementEnd(InlinedOutputExpressionMarkupHandler.java:104) at org.attoparser.HtmlElement.handleStandaloneElementEnd(HtmlElement.java:79) at org.attoparser.HtmlMarkupHandler.handleStandaloneElementEnd(HtmlMarkupHandler.java:241) at org.attoparser.MarkupEventProcessorHandler.handleStandaloneElementEnd(MarkupEventProcessorHandler.java:327) at org.attoparser.ParsingElementMarkupUtil.parseStandaloneElement(ParsingElementMarkupUtil.java:96) at org.attoparser.MarkupParser.parseBuffer(MarkupParser.java:706) at org.attoparser.MarkupParser.parseDocument(MarkupParser.java:301) ... 54 more Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'user' available as request attribute at org.springframework.web.servlet.support.BindStatus.<init>(BindStatus.java:153) at org.springframework.web.servlet.support.RequestContext.getBindStatus(RequestContext.java:903) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.context.webmvc.SpringWebMvcThymeleafRequestContext.getBindStatus(SpringWebMvcThymeleafRequestContext.java:227) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.util.FieldUtils.getBindStatusFromParsedExpression(FieldUtils.java:306) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.util.FieldUtils.getBindStatus(FieldUtils.java:253) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.util.FieldUtils.getBindStatus(FieldUtils.java:227) at org.thymeleaf.spring5.processor.AbstractSpringFieldTagProcessor.doProcess(AbstractSpringFieldTagProcessor.java:174) at org.thymeleaf.processor.element.AbstractAttributeTagProcessor.doProcess(AbstractAttributeTagProcessor.java:74) ... 67 more

The relevant error appears to be here: Error during execution of processor 'org.thymeleaf.spring5.processor.SpringInputGeneralFieldTagProcessor' (template: "index" - line 12, col 37)

That corresponds to the following block of index.html code:

<form method="post" style="max-width:600px;" th:object="${user}">
    <div class="form-group">
        <label th:for="username">Username</label>
        <input class="form-control" th:field="*{username}" />
        <span th:errors="*{username}" class="error"></span>
    </div>
    <input type="submit" value="Play" />
</form>

More specifically, to the "th:field" . Now this worked perfectly in my older application, but cannot even get my index.html page to run. Any idea what is happening? Is there some changes in Spring that is impacting this?

And this is my Controller:

@RequestMapping(value = "index", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String displayLogin(Model model) {
    model.addAttribute("title", "Welcome to Kafka Jeopardy");
    model.addAttribute("user", new User());
    return "index";
}

And my User object:

@Entity
public class User {

@Id
@GeneratedValue
private int id;

@NotNull
@Size(min = 3, max = 15)
private String username;

public User() {
}

public User(String username) {
    this.username = username;
}

public int getId() {
    return this.id;
}

public String getUsername() {
    return username;
}

public void setUsername(String username) {
    this.username = username;
}
}

Any insight would be appreciated!