The Argentine lock forward - who was one of the driving forces behind the Pumas' march to last season's World Cup semi-finals - has been appointed in succession to Scotland skipper Jason White.
And he says if Sale are to improve on last season's fifth-placed finish in the Guinness Premiership and truly challenge for silverware they have to up their mental strategy.
"It was a nice surprise to be picked as skipper," says Lobbe. "There are a lot of players here who could handle the challenge of being captain so it was a big surprise and a great honour to be named the captain of such a good team.
"It's very important for me to be focused in the right way. I still have to do all my work out on the pitch because if you only think about being a captain and not a player you play badly. I will try to be a leader in the way of giving everything, understanding that always the team is first and that you have to play for the team an not for yourself.
"I will also stress to the players that if you play an intelligent game you can win but it is very important to think that when the 80 minutes are over you know you have given everything and that you don't have any regrets with yourself and with the team.
Toughest
"We don't need to speak about reaching the top four or winning silverware or even setting any targets for ourselves. We simply need to speak about our first league game at Newcastle on September 7th.
"We need to be very humble and to work hard. We have a great team here at Sale but we need to get our heads right collectively.
"We also have to develop our rugby head and we have to be a little bit more intelligent in the way that we play the game and we have to believe in ourselves.
"Every time we believed in ourselves last season we had a really good result. We are fit, we have a great bunch of players but in rugby, 90 per cent of it is played in the head.
"You can be the best player in the world but if your head isn't right you won't achieve anything. So for us it is very important to start getting the head right and to prepare ourselves for the long battle that lies ahead in what is the toughest league in the world."
Meanwhile, Sharks director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre has explained the thinking behind the recruitment of their latest summer signing, Samoan World Cup star Andy Tuilagi.
Formerly with Leicester Tigers, the 22-year-old played seven games for Leeds Carnegie last season, scoring one try.
"He is a young player with great potential who can play at 12, 13 and on the wing and has both pace and power," said Saint-Andre.
"We only had 31 full time players so with Andy we now have 32 which we will need this season what with injuries and international call-ups and I'm sure that he will do a good job for us."
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